Where Loyalties Lie
by Marblez
Summary: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi’s radar, for staying away.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer. I do own my own creations however.

**Summary**: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi's radar, for staying away. This is their story.

**Warning**: Violence and slash (later on). You no likey, you no ready. Kay?

**A/N** The first five chapters are completely about the OC's I have created but have no fear, our favourite vampires and werewolves will be in this story!

**Where Loyalties Lie.**

**Chapter One: Cossette.**

"Cossette! Where are you, you stupid girl?"

"Girl? I'm 26 mother. I'm hardly a girl any more."

"You may be 26 but your still my daughter and your still un-married and living off your parents so if I want to call you a girl I will call you a girl."

"Oh, your drunk again."

_**SLAP! **_

"Don't you speak to me like that you ungrateful child! Now go to the pub and get us some beer."

"What? No! You want to get more drunk go get your own beer!"

_**SLAP! **_

"Get us the beer before I take the belt to you and don't think that your too old for the belt you little tart."

"I'm hardly a tart mother, if I was I'd be married. But I'll go, couldn't have you actually doing something yourself could we…"

Before here mother could slap her face again Cossette grabbed her moth-eaten shawl and left their run down house. It would take her approximately ten minutes to get to the pub so that wasn't too bad but it was all little alleys with not much lights and many questionable characters hanging out in them. This was why Cossette hated going out at night.

"Hello dear, fancy a quickie?" a drunk slurred at her, reaching out to grab at her. She jumped out of his reach and rushed on down the alley, turning into the last one that would finally bring her to the pub. Not that the pub brought any relief to her, the pub was filled with even more drunks and violent men. She hurried simply because the quicker she got the beer the quicker she would get home. Then and only then would she feel safe again.

"Hello there," the voice startled her; she'd thought this alley was empty apart from her. Apparently she was wrong. "Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you." Cossette tried to do as she did with the last man, dodge out of his way and keep going. But this man caught her arm in the tightest grip she'd ever felt; so tight she'd definitely have bruises tomorrow if not tonight.

"Let go of me!" she screamed, pulling as hard as she could to get her arm free.

"No," the mans face was painfully beautiful and made her pause in her struggle. Almost. "I just want a bite to eat."

She screamed loudly as he pulled off her shawl roughly and lowered his open mouth to her neck, his sharp teeth biting easily through the thin layer of skin. Then her blood began to flow into his mouth and he drank it like it was the finest wine on the Earth. Her scream by now had faltered into a whimper, the blood loss beginning to make her feel incredibly light headed.

"Mmmm…delicious…" he moaned against her neck.

"No…get…off…me…!" she somehow managed to scream once more, using what felt like the last of her strength to push at his rock hard strength.

"What's going on here?" another mans voice asked, coming from behind her.

"Help…me…"

"Let her go!" the man shouted loudly and mercifully her attacker did let her go, almost dancing back from her as she slumped into a heap on the ground, her legs unable to support her. Her saviour rushed at the man to attack him but her grinned at them both with blood stained teeth and jumped up onto the roof of the building behind her, a roof at least four stories high. "What in all that's holy…"

"Ugh…" Cossette moaned in pain, her hands pressing against her neck wound. It was burning! Her rescuer rushed to her side,

"Miss! Let me get you home!" He helped her up gently, supporting almost all of her weight. Cossette whimpered loudly, the burning was spreading along her shoulder. "It's ok miss, whatever he was he's gone now." Too weak to do anything else she let him pick her up in his strong arms and gave weak direction to him of how to get her home. The burning was spreading down her arm…

Both of them were unaware of the vampire jumping from building to building as he followed them with a wicked smile on his face, he'd lost his meal but it looked like after all these years he'd soon be gaining a companion.

~ * ~ * ~

The pain was worse than anything she could have imagined and the three different doctors her mother had brought to examine her didn't have a clue what was wrong with her, why a bit was causing this much trouble.

She screamed.

Her mother wept.

Her father drank.

And Uther, the vampire, watched.

Soon she would die, the last doctor had said so. The strain of whatever it was causing this was too much on her heart. In a couple of days she would be dead. In a couple of days his venom will have completed it's work. In a couple of days she would be his companion. So with that in mind he decided it was time for her to know…everything. He dropped through her window. Cossette screamed but her scream brought no one to her room, she'd been screaming for days now.

"Oh hush and let my venom do it's work," Uther snapped, covering her mouth with his cold hand. This close he could now hear every pathetic beat of her failing heart and he grinned.

"Your…venom?" she asked when he removed his hand, speaking through teeth gritted against the pain. "What…did…you…do…to…me?"

"Well my plan was merely to drink your blood and kill you but that inconvenient mortal spoiled that. Now instead of a quick death for you and a full stomach for me…you get to turn into something like me and I get a companion for the rest of eternity," he laughed down at her.

"And…what…exactly…are…you?" she asked before screaming in pain.

"I'm a vampire," he whispered, leaning close to her ear.

"They're…not…real!"

"Oh you have so much to learn and I am so looking forward to teaching you. When I'm finished you'll be an even worse monster than me, after all a newborn vampire is the deadliest thing in creation," he laughed once more as another pain filled scream left her lips. "Oh shhhh, die quietly. I'll be here when you wake up."

The last thing she heard before her heart gave out was his evil laughter.

~ * ~ * ~

Cossette always said she couldn't remember her first year as a vampire but in truth she could remember every detail as if it had only happened yesterday. She could remember being so thirsty for blood she didn't care who or where she killed, it was only Uther that kept her from being discovered in her first year.

And then one day, exactly a year after she was bitten the bloodlust just seemed to disappear, she suddenly felt like she could control herself. She didn't know what had happened and she dare not ask Uther so instead she tested herself, she walked through the crowded square one night and didn't rip anyone's throat out. She had control and she didn't need him.

Uther was evil, he enjoyed tormenting his prey, making them suffer. Cossette wanted it over as quickly as possible but he liked to play games with them, to make their death last. He even kept records of his favourite ones in a little journal he carried with him always. Uther also thought that as his creation and companion Cossette should welcome him into her body whenever he wanted. She hated him.

So she left him as soon as she realised she had control, she didn't take anything with her, just walked away one day when they were out hunting. She went to Paris and lived happily of the thousands of no bodies so found there, off the rapists and murders she witness from her place in the shadows, of the adulterous women and the whores. She lived like this for 20 years. But then came the revolution and with it…Daniel.

A/N There we go. Hope you're a little interested at least. Feel free to comment.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer. I do own my own creations however.

**Summary**: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi's radar, for staying away. This is their story.

**Warning**: Violence and slash (later on). You no likey, you no ready. Kay?

**A/N** The first five chapters are completely about the OC's I have created but have no fear, our favourite vampires and werewolves will be in this story!

**Where Loyalties Lie.**

**Chapter Two: Daniel. **

"We've got room for two more on this trip," the man spoke in a hushed voice, sticking to the shadows even in the hidden room of the farmhouse. There were three people in the room other than him, "One of you will have to stay behind and wait for the next ship. It shouldn't take more than a fortnight."

"No! We must stay together," Madame Gilbert gasped, clutching her husband and her son's arms tightly, glaring at the man in the shadows. No one knew who he was or even what he looked like; even in the shadows he would be wearing his mask.

"Mother, you and father should go," Daniel said quietly. His mother started to protest but he placed a finger to her lips, "Listen to me. We don't know if there'll be three places on the next boat. You two should go on this one and then I can go on the next one. A single place will be easier to find than three."

"But Daniel…" his mother protested.

"Please. It will make me feel better to have you safe. I can't loose you too," Daniels voice grew quieter as he spoke, the harsh memory of his loss paining him. He had lost his wife of eight years two years ago and as if that didn't hurt enough he'd also lost his wonderful two children. Scarlett Fever. He'd had it when he was toddler so he'd been safe but little Jacqueline and Peter had succumbed to the sickness quickly. Marie, his wife, had been so tired after caring for their children she had died even quicker than they had leaving him all alone. "Please mother…father…go. I will follow when I can. Escape while it is possible."

"Daniel…"

"Please…"

"All right. We'll go."

Daniel couldn't go with them to the boat for risk of being seen; while his parents were now dressed as peasants he was still in his now slightly soiled nobleman's clothes. He sat in the hidden room, gazing out the tiny window at the night sky, thinking of everything that had happened in his life so far.

"Hello there," startled he looked down into the alley bellow, seeing a beautiful woman looking up at him. She was quite probably the most stunning thing he'd ever seen. Even in the darkness of the alley he could tell that her skin was as pale as snow and her hair was light brown, falling in uncontrollable curls to her waist. Her curvaceous body was barely controlled by the light blue dress she wore and from the upstairs window he had a perfect view down her cleavage.

"Hello," he called down to her, he couldn't help but answer her even though he'd been given strict instructions to make sure no one realised he was there.

"What's your name?" she asked him, staring up at him with eyes so dark they looked almost black, especially at such a distance.

"Daniel. What is yours?"

"Cossette. Why don't you come down? We can…talk," she offered with a slightly wicked smile. Daniel felt his jaw drop, it had been so long since he'd felt physically attracted to a woman and now this woman, this gorgeous woman was offering him more than he could want with just a simple phrase. But…

"I can't," he shook his head sadly.

"Why not?" she asked, pouting and wiggling her hips, "Don't you like me?"

"I like you much more than I should but…I can't come down," he told her.

"Could I come up?" she batted her eyes at him.

"Y-Yes," he couldn't say no, he wanted her so badly he was almost drooling, "But the doors are locked, inside and out." She smiled wickedly and in the time it took him to blink she was right in front of his face, holding onto the windowsill. "How did you do that?!"

"Magic," she grinned wickedly. "Can I come in?"

"Oh…yes," Daniel jumped back from the window, watching as she gracefully swung her legs over the window sill, her skirts catching and giving him a long glimpse of her pale legs. She wore no stockings. Catching himself staring he turned away from her. She giggled,

"I don't mind you looking."

"What can I do for you?" he asked as he turned around to face her again, finding her standing by the window with her legs covered once more.

"I thought we were going to…talk."

"Oh yes," Daniel blushed a deep red, "I'm afraid I haven't…talked in a few years. Not since my wife died." Cossette walked up to him and ran a cold hand down the front of his shirt.

"Nice clothes," she commented, "Noble?" Daniel froze, realizing for the first time that she could turn him in at any point. She obviously caught his look of panic, "Don't worry I won't turn you in."

"Yes I am a noble," Daniel said quietly, "Which is why the doors are all locked and I really shouldn't have talked to you. If the person who has taken such a risk in hiding me knew I'd been so stupid…"

"We can be quiet," Cossette smiled flirtatiously at him as she sat down on the pathetic bed his parents had been sleeping on for the last few weeks. He'd slept on the floor. Slowly he sat down next to her and couldn't help but gasp as he saw what colour her eyes were up close. Red.

"Y-Your eyes…"

"Magic," she teased him again. "Now please, let's…talk."

"O-Ok."

Cossette was angry with herself. She'd been watching this house for days, had known he was noble and had picked him for her next meal as soon as she realised he was alone in the house. Since the revolution she'd been feeding of nobles mostly as their mysterious deaths were never reported, they were noble and no one would miss them in this day and age and the people that were hiding them couldn't report it or risk being sent to the guillotine themselves. With the women it was quick and swift, she wasn't attracted to women but with the men, especially he handsome ones they had some fun first. And then once they were exhausted she'd strike…which was why she was angry with herself.

She hadn't killed him.

She hadn't even wanted to kill him.

They'd had their fun and now he was sound asleep on the pathetic little bed, naked under the thin sheet. He'd been asleep for twenty minutes…by now he should be dead! She should have sucked him dry…but instead she was lying next to him in the bed, as naked as him. And she didn't want to feed from him, she hadn't had the urge to bite him since she'd entered the room and been assaulted by his scent. Instead she wanted to stay with him, stay with him forever.

Was this love?

Was she in love with him?

"Oh no…" she mumbled, lifting his arm from where it lay across her stomach. Once free she slid out of the bed and pulled on her clothes one item at a time, every now and then glancing at the man sleeping in the bed. "I can't love a mortal. I can't…" With one last glance at the beautiful man sleeping on the bed she jumped out the window into the dark night.

Daniel woke with a smile on his face for the first time since his wife had died. Stretching his arms out he encountered only an empty bed. Opening his eyes he sat up, the sheet pooling in his lap as he looked around the room quickly. She was gone. He sighed sadly and slipped out of the bed; dressing himself in the clothes she'd so carefully stripped from his body the night before.

It was five days before he saw her again, five days alone in that room with only Pierre to talk to and then only when he brought his meagre meals. He sat at the window most nights and found himself absent-mindedly looking out for her. When he saw her walking down the alley the fifth night his heart leapt in his chest. He told himself it was only two years worth of celibacy making him behave like this but he knew deep down it was something more, he felt more for this mysterious woman than he'd felt for anyone, even his wife.

"Daniel?" her voice was like a nightingales call as she called up to him.

"Yes," he called down to her, leaning out of the window so she could see him better. There was no one else in the alley.

"Can I come up?" she asked.

"Yes." Once again he blinked and she was before him. "One day you must tell me how you do that," he told her as he helped her through the window, his hands resting on her hips once she was standing before him. "You left without a goodbye."

"I know…I wasn't going to come back."

"And yet here you are."

"Here I am."

"Why?" he tilted his head to one side as he asked, looking completely adorable to the scarlet-eyed woman. Slowly one of her cold hands reached up and traced his jaw line with her fingertips. He'd asked her why she was so cold before and she'd avoided giving him a real answer, claiming once again that it was magic.

"I found I couldn't stay away."

"But why didn't you want to come back?"

"It's too dangerous."

"Because I'm a noble?" his voice had dropped to nothing more than a whisper.

"No. It's too dangerous for you to be with me." He frowned at her, that didn't make sense. What could possibly be dangerous about the woman before him? "I know what you're thinking, that there couldn't possibly be anything dangerous about me but there is and I am putting you at a great risk right now. I-I came to kill you last time we met." He stepped back from her at that. "But I couldn't."

"Who do you work for then? The government?" he asked, now sounding a little angry. Mostly he was angry at himself for trusting her and believing her when she had said she wouldn't tell anybody. She'd been sent to kill him!

"I don't work anyone," she told him.

"Then why were you going to kill me?" he asked her.

"It's what I do," she smiled at him sadly. She sighed loudly and met his questioning eyes with her sad ones. "I am not like you and I don't mean that I am common and you re noble, the difference is much greater than that. I am not human." He stared at her, a thousand and one thoughts running through his head all at once,

"What?!"

"I feel I must tell you the truth because of how I feel about you. I tried to ignore it, to just carry on like I normally do but this…urge to be with you is driving me crazy," she gazed at him sadly, "Do you believe in love at first sight? I didn't…but now I think I do."

"I have not stopped thinking about you for these past days. I have not thought of my wife or children at all and since there deaths they have been in my thoughts every waking moment," he told her sincerely, "It's like you have bewitched me."

"Love at first sight," she said quietly with a sad smile. "I feel the same way." He couldn't help but smile slightly at that but then his thoughts went back to what she had said just moments before basically telling him she loved him,

"What-what did you mean by your not human?" he asked softly.

"I'm a vampire."

"They're not real," he argued immediately.

"Do you know I said exactly the same thing to the one who made me," she smiled at him, "We are not what the world thinks are vampires, coffins and crucifix's and all that. But we do live off blood, human blood. It's more satisfying for us than the finest of wines is to you. And that is how I intended to kill you the first time we were together. I intended to have my fun and then suck the blood from your body."

"Why?"

"It is how I survive, drinking blood. The…sex was just for fun," she explained quietly, "Or it has been until you came along."

"So you want to…drink my blood?" Daniel asked nervously.

"I did when I watched this house, I did when I spoke to you from the alley. But once I was with you I didn't want to, even though the scent of your blood and the sound of your heart is the finest I have ever found. I don't want to kill you, I want…I want to love you," she explained.

"How old are you?" Daniel asked.

"I'm only 46. I've been a vampire for the past 20 years and I haven't aged a day since the day I died," Cossette answered. "Do you…do you fear me now? Do you want me to go?"

"Strangely…no," he bit his lip, "I don't fear you. I expect you could have killed me many times and I wouldn't have stood a chance if you really wanted to do it. And I don't want you to leave."

If Cossette could have cried tears of relief she would have,

"Thank you."

After that Cossette came to him every night and Daniel found himself falling hopelessly and ridiculously in love with a woman who wasn't human and could snap and kill him at any second. Two weeks passed and then Pierre told him that there was a place on a ship coming in two days time.

"I'm going to England in two days," he told Cossette when she came through the window that night. He went to say something further but she put a finger to his lips and told him to 'Shh'. "What?"

"Wait here," she told him and then was gone for only a few seconds before she was back standing before him, "Someone's found out you've been hidden here. Pierre and his family have done a runner and the soldiers are coming up here. We have to get you out of here. Do you trust me?" she was panicking now, not for herself but for him. She knew that if the soldiers found him he'd be beheaded within a week.

"You know I do," he told her.

"Then hold on tight and don't scream," she told him, turning her back to him and pulling his arms over her shoulders. And then she jumped out the window taking him with her. It took all his mental power not to scream as that one leap took them up onto the roof on the next building. "Are you all right?"

"Y-Yes…I didn't know you were that strong," he breathed in her ear.

"Well now you do. I'm going to get us out of the city. Hold on tight," she told him and then jumped again and again from rooftop to rooftop until the buildings started to become less frequent. Soon they ended and she jumped down into a field. She didn't stop however and took off at a run, carrying him on her back as if he weighed nothing. Two hours of this type of travel later she stopped and let him down.

"Thank you," he told her sincerely, kissing her ice-cold lips gently.

"You don't have to thank me," she told him, putting her arms round him and resting her head over his beating heart. His arms held her tightly about the waist. "Daniel, there's something I've been wanting to ask you for a couple of days. I don't want to loose you, ever. Will you…would you consider letting me turn you? Would you…become a vampire and stay with me forever?"

"Me? Become a vampire?" he asked, jerking back from her. "Does it hurt?"

"Only for a little while. The worst bit it the initial bloodlust," she wouldn't lie to him about it, "But I would control you, I wouldn't let you do anything that would expose you or get you caught by mortals."

"Bloodlust…"

"For my first year all I could think about was blood but then I learned control. I will help teach you control like my maker should have taught me," Cossette promised, taking his big hands in her little pale ones.

"He didn't?" Daniel asked.

"No. He let me learn control by myself," Cossette said bitterly, "He wasn't a nice vampire and I left him as soon as I could." She let go of his hands to cup his cheeks, "But I love you and I can't stand the thought of ever loosing you. I promise I'll help you." He looked thoughtful for an agonisingly long minute, a minute in which he compared what he'd be loosing to what he'd be gaining…

"All right. I want to be with you for ever."

She kissed him softly on the lips before kissing along his chin to his neck, stopping right over his pulsing jugular. Without warning him, as it would do no good for him to be any tenser she bit down hard. She couldn't help but moan as his delicious blood filled her mouth…all she wanted to do in that instant was drink him dry. But his cry of fear and brain brought her senses back like a bucket of ice cold water and she jerked back from him with enough force to send her thudding into a nearby tree, panting heavily.

"Ah!" he cried out, falling to his knees, his hands covering the bite wound. "It burns! Cossette…" She crawled to him and took him in her arms, not breathing any more; she didn't want to smell the delicious blood. Slowly she pulled him back to the tree she'd hit, leaning back against it with him lying in her arms.

"It's my venom. It'll kill you, change you…there's nothing I can do to help the pain. Just lie still and let it work. I'll be here. I'll always be here."

She stayed with him the five days it took for her venom to kill him. She stayed with him the three years it took for him master complete control of his bloodlust and abilities. After that they stayed together out of love and devotion.

They lived all over France for almost seventy years but then they felt the need for a change of scenery and moved to England. The years passed them by as they lived happily together off of travellers and criminals and people who wouldn't easily be missed. They had their first wedding in 1897 in a little English church deep in the country and from then on she called herself Cossette Gilbert, until then she'd kept her own name. Then in 1912 they wanted a change of scenery once again and what better way to move than to take part in the biggest adventure ever seen in the world to date, to cross the Atlantic ocean to America of the RMS TITANIC.

And it was on TITANIC that they met young Thomas…

A/N There we go, character and chapter two. Hope you liked it.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer. I do own my own creations however.

**Summary**: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi's radar, for staying away. This is their story.

**Warning**: Violence and slash (later on). You no likey, you no ready. Kay?

**A/N** The first five chapters are completely about the OC's I have created but have no fear, our favourite vampires and werewolves will be in this story!

**Where Loyalties Lie.**

**Chapter Three: Thomas. **

"Guy?" he asked softly as he entered the abandoned boathouse, holding the candle before him as he shut the creaking door. It had once been his family's main boathouse but in the 1890's a bigger one had been built closer to the house and this one had fallen into disrepair. It served well as a secret meeting place however for romantic rendezvous. "Are you in here?"

"Aye," the voice came from the shadows and then the young gardener stepped out into the light given off by the little candle. "I'm sorry about your father."

"Thank you," Thomas whispered, his eyes dropping briefly to the floor as he thought of the events that had brought him here tonight. Yesterday his father had passed away and today his mother had made a long distance phone call and arranged for herself and her four children to move back to her family home. In America.

"Your note said it was urgent," Guy said, walking up to Thomas with a worried frown on his handsome face.

"It is," Thomas' throat was think and his eyes were watering, "Mother has decided that we are to live with her mother…in New York."

"New York? That's…that's in America isn't it?" Guy asked fearfully.

"Yes," Thomas swallowed thickly, "Mother's booking us passage on the TITANIC. We go in a month. So…we…our relationship will have to end." His free hand was shaking as it came up to cup Guy's bristled cheek.

"End?" Guy asked in disbelief. "But…"

"I'm sorry. I thought we could be together forever, secretly of course but…but my fathers death has changed all that," Thomas said tearfully, his thumb stroking his lover of two years cheek, "I want to thank you for everything, for helping me see that I can't live a life pretending to be something I'm not, for teaching me to live but live discretely and most of all thank you for loving me." Guy was openly crying by the time Thomas had finished speaking.

"Can't you stay?" he finally asked quietly.

"Mothers selling the house. She's going to talk to the servants this evening so you should find out officially then," Thomas explained quietly. "I'm…I'm going to miss you Guy. I'll never forget you."

"I'm never gonna forget you either sir," Guy murmured quietly, his hands moving slowly to take the candle from his older lover and put it on an old crate. Then his hands cupped Thomas' face and their lips met. "A month…"

"Or there abouts…" Thomas murmured against the soft lips he knew so well.

"A month to say goodbye…" Together the two moved over to the old sofa that Thomas had had moved into the boathouse when his mother deemed it past it's usefulness and bought a new one. It was Guy who took charge then, who gently stripped Thomas of his fine clothes and lay him down before stripping himself and joining him. Both of them wept silent tears as they made love and curled up in each other arms once they'd reached their pleasure, just holding each other.

~ * ~ * ~

Thomas held Alice around the waist tightly as his youngest sister stood on the bottom rail of the white railings, waving madly at the crowd bellow with both arms. His free arm waved too but his eyes searched every face for the one who had promised to be there for him. It took him nearly fifteen minutes to find that one face in the crowd of hundreds. Their eyes met as such a distance and they waved to each other and only to each other, at that moment there was no one else in the world.

"We're moving!" Alice screamed in her high voice, all but jumping up and down on the railing, "We're moving!" She was right but Thomas didn't take his eyes away from Guy's to watch the grand ship moving like everyone else, he didn't break their final look until he had not other choice. "Thomas…why are you crying?"

"Because it's sad to say goodbye," Thomas said quietly.

~ * ~ * ~

Thomas first met Daniel and Cossette Gilbert after dinner there first night on board. He'd slipped out onto the boat deck to have a cigarette alone, walking in the night air. His thoughts had drifted to his last time with Guy and he was so distracted that he walked into Cossette.

"I'm sorry ma'am," he said quietly.

"It's alright," she had a lovely French accent to go with her beautiful looks. "You must have been very lost in thought not see us."

"Yes I was," he said with a slight blush, throwing what remained of his cigarette over the side of the ship, "My apologies again for walking into you Miss…?" He frowned softly as he realised that he didn't know her name.

"Gilbert, Cossette Gilbert. And this is my husband Daniel," she smiled pleasantly at him. "And you are?"

"Er Thomas Jones, at your service," he smiled shyly at the beautiful pair. Only then did he notice their eyes and gasped, stepping back a pace, their eyes were red! "I'm sorry, your eyes startled me…"

"Oh yes the redness," Daniel spoke with the same thick accent as his wife, "My wife and I have been travelling for a few years and unfortunately we picked up an illness that affected our eye colour. It is not contagious and the Doctors have reassured us it will fade in time." The pair shared a secret smile at their rehearsed story explaining the red eyes.

"Oh," Thomas nodded, stepping towards them again, "I'm sorry about my reaction. As I said it startled me."

"Do not worry, most people are startled by it," Cossette said gently. "Are you travelling alone?" Both of them were thinking the same thing, if he were he would make a good meal. There was no one on the boat deck and his body could be easily disposed of over the side.

"No. I'm travelling with my mother, two of my sisters and my brother," Thomas said, taking out another cigarette. He offered the case to Daniel who declined. "My closest sister has remained in England with her fiancé."

"What of your father?" Daniel asked after sharing another look with his wife, this boy was not going to be their meal after all. "Is he not travelling with you?"

"My father died a month ago. We are travelling to live with my mothers family in New York," Thomas explained sadly, taking out his lighter as he did so.

"I'm sorry," Cossette murmured. "How old are your siblings?" They were all walking now, strolling around the first class boat deck by the ships lights.

"Anna, my sister who stayed behind is nineteen, then it's the twins Lillian and Laurence at sixteen and lastly Alice is twelve," Thomas said with a smile, "Poor Alice is terribly seasick."

"Oh the poor dear," Cossette said softly, meaning what she said. She had always had a soft spot for children, being motherly was in her nature. It was one of the few things she missed as a vampire, being unable to have children of her own.

"So you are the eldest?" Daniel asked.

"Yes. I'm twenty-one," Thomas answered.

"And the man of the family," Daniel smiled at the boy.

"Yes I guess you could call me that now. It sounds strange though," Thomas admitted, "The man of the house was always my father." He looked out to the horizon and therefore missed the flaring of the couples nostrils as the sea breeze ruffled his hair, blowing his delicious sent into the their faces. "Do you have any children?"

"No, we have not been blessed with any children," Daniel said slowly, holding his need in check. They could not feed on this boy, he would be missed and he was too…nice. Both vampires preferred to feed from loners and people who weren't…nice. Thomas was still leant on the railings smoking his cigarette, now instead of looking out at the horizon looking down at the water.

"You said your sister stayed behind with her fiancé. Did you have someone special too?" Cossette asked, leaning on the railing beside him.

"I did," Thomas said, his voice suddenly a little choked.

"Why did you not stay in England then?" Cossette asked.

"My…mother would not have approved of our relationship," Thomas admitted quietly, Guy's handsome face floating across his mind. What would he be doing now? Was he missing Thomas as much as Thomas was missing him?

"So you ended it," Daniel said softly.

"Yes," Thomas smiled sadly, looking over his shoulder at the man standing a little way behind him and his wife, "I did the right thing."

"But not the thing you wanted to," Cossette pointed out.

"No. Not the thing I wanted to," his smile turned to her. He finished his cigarette and let the butt drop down into the waves below, loosing sight of it almost instantly. Standing up straight he turned around and held his hand out to Daniel, "It was a pleasure meeting you but I'd best be getting back to my family before they worry." Daniel nodded and shook his hand firmly but quickly.

"Maybe we'll see each other again before the ship docks," Cossette said brightly. "I enjoyed our little chat."

"Maybe we will," he agreed, shaking her hand delicately like he'd been taught, treating her with the respect a lady deserves. "Goodnight." They bid him goodnight in return and watched as he went inside.

They did not speak the next day but they saw him walking the boat deck with a girl they assumed to be Alice, holding her hand and talking to her, distracting her from her sea sickness no doubt. He did not see them but felt as if someone's eyes were constantly on him, of course he supposed someone was always watching him what with the many passengers on the fine ship.

The following day they found him after dinner scolding a younger boy who had evidently been teasing little Alice about being seasick. From their first talk they deduced that this must be Laurence and the girl stood with Alice must be his twin Lillian. When they made their presence known with a gentle cough Thomas almost jumped a mile into the air and little Alice giggled, forgetting her tears momentarily.

"Good evening Mr Jones," Daniel said politely.

"Good evening Mr Gilbert, Mrs Gilbert," Thomas replied, smiling now. Secretly he'd been hoping to see the couple again. He'd returned to his room that first night feeling much better than he had since he'd known he would be travelling across the sea, talking with them had calmed him and made leaving Guy a little less painful. And having someone who wasn't in his care or his mother to talk to was just…a relief. "Might I introduce my younger brother Laurence who's causing plenty of trouble as usual and my younger sisters Lillian and Alice."

"Pleasure to meet you all," Cossette smiled around at them. Alice gave a loud gasp and literally hid behind Thomas. "Oh dear, what have I done."

"Alice?" Thomas asked.

"Her eyes…" his twelve-year-old sister mumbled, "They're witches eyes."

"No they're not Alice. Mr and Mrs Gilbert have been travelling and along the way they contracted a bug that turned their eyes red. It's harmless," Thomas explained, smiling over his shoulder at the little girl hiding.

"Your dress is lovely," Lillian said breathily, eyeing the terribly expensive gown the French woman wore perfectly. "Is it satin?" Cossette and Lillian were immediately lost in a conversation about clothes, a conversation soon joined by the still slightly nervous Alice. But at least she was distracted from feeling sick.

"Women and clothes," Daniel laughed softly as both girls gently touched the fabric of Cossette skirt. They thought their mother's clothes were nice but Cossettes were even lovelier. "How are you today Thomas?"

"Fine thank you. And yourself?" Thomas asked, ignoring Laurence as he sighed loudly. There was a loud giggle from the girls as Cossette unpinned her expensive hat and swapped it for the little straw one with a pink ribbon that Alice wore over her blond ringlets.

"I can't complain," Daniel answered, once again declining the cigarette Thomas offered him. Laurence went to take one from the case but Thomas snapped it shut quickly, glaring at his brother.

"You were smoking at my age, I saw you," Laurence said sulkily.

"Yes and look at me now, addicted to the things. Wait until you're older to start and you'll enjoy them more. Trust me," Thomas said calmly, lighting the cigarette with his practised ease. "Why don't you go and find someone your own age to play with?"

"Mother told us to stay with you," Laurence was definitely having a big sulk.

"Well you know where the cabin is don't you?" Thomas asked and Laurence nodded, "Then as long as you return there before nine o'clock you can go off by yourself. And if you promise your best behaviour…"

"Promise! Thanks Tom! Lily! Lets go," Laurence grabbed his twin's hand and pulled her away from the fur-lined jacket she'd been admiring. Soon the twins were out of sight and temporarily out of mind.

"So where do you go to live in America?" Daniel asked as he and Thomas began to walk together, leaving little Alice to be thoroughly charmed by Cossette.

"Somewhere in New York. Our mother was born there but moved to England when she married father. My siblings and I were all born in England however and this is the first time we are going to America," Thomas answered calmly. "Yourself?"

"My wife and I decided we wanted a change again and we have never been to America before either," Daniel explained. "And what better way than to travel on this fine ship. Unsinkable they say."

"Yes but I'd rather not test that out if it's all the same to you," Thomas said with a small laugh, "I heard one of the sailors talking about the water being so cold you'd freeze to death in minutes."

"Ah but that's what lifeboats are for," Daniel said, pointing to the nearest one.

"Yes of course but what about the people of the lower classes?" Thomas asked, nodding to the lower boat deck crowded with people dressed in dirty clothes.

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked.

"Well look how many boats there are, there's only enough for first class. What about second and third?" Thomas asked. Daniel frowned thoughtfully, looking along the ship at the few lifeboats.

"You are right. Maybe they have some others stored somewhere for the others. Not that we will need them of course, a ship like this is as safe as houses," Daniel said, his voice loud and sure. Thomas resisted the need to point out that houses fall down when the support beams break.

The two men talked about men's things for the rest of the day and Cossette entertained Alice for the same amount of time, giving her the hat as a gift when they parted at the dinner call to get ready. Alice's sickness was now entirely gone, spirited away by the 'witch' with the beautiful clothes.

The next day their mother insisted on meeting the couple that had been such a success with her children and Thomas was set the task of finding the couple after breakfast and bringing them to their stateroom for tea and a little chat. It took him the better part of an hour to find Cossette and Daniel, eventually finding them watching the third class with a strange sort of interest from the shade on the promenade. He had no idea of course that they'd been looking out for loners to pick for their meal that day, the need to feed now nagging at their minds almost constantly.

Somehow they resisted the call of the families blood long enough to sit with them in their grand stateroom, asking that the curtains be closed due to their delicate eye condition, sipping tea and chatting until it was time for luncheon. Victoria Jones was pleased at the friends their children had made, the elegant French couple meeting her approval. Their range of conversation was adequate and their clothes showed they obviously possessed as much money as the Jones family if not more, a thing she always looked out for with new acquaintances.

After luncheon Victoria and Alice painted together in their stateroom, something the mother and daughter often did. Laurence went exploring by himself, surprisingly getting permission from Thomas first and even more surprisingly leaving Lillian behind. Apparently all she'd done the day before was talk about Cossette and her clothes and Laurence was sick of it. Lillian got a rare treat that afternoon, with permission from her mother she went with Cossette to see some of her other clothes in her own room, a real treat for the girl quickly turning into a beautiful woman. That left Thomas and Daniel sitting in Daniels own stateroom sipping whiskey and talking about anything and everything, finding once again how much they had in common and how easily they got on with each other.

Daniel didn't want to admit it but he was starting to understand what Cossette meant when she had told him years ago that she had known from the instant she'd talked to him that he would make a great companion and an even greater vampire. He was getting this feeling for Thomas but the biggest difference, the biggest reason not to say anything or do anything was that this boy, for Daniel couldn't call him a man yet, had so much of his life left to live, so much left to experience.

That evening for dinner Lillian was dressed in one of Cossettes dresses, pinned in by Cossette herself. All of the young men's eyes followed the pretty girl as she walked through the room and sat at the table between Thomas and Daniel. The couple had been invited to at with the family that night for Thomas hadn't seen them at any of the meals so far. At their table the conversation was light and pleasant and filled with laugher, something it hadn't been for a while. Their meals had been ruled by manners and silence since their father had died. Cossette joined the women of the family for tea after the meal and Thomas and Daniel went out onto the boat deck for a walk and a cigarette (Thomas only of course), opting out of joining the other men in the smoking room. In there it would be all politics and prattle, something they could both live without.

And it was the next day that disaster struck.

~ * ~ * ~

The family hadn't seen Cossette or Daniel all day even though they'd kept an eye out for them on the sunny boat deck. It was Thomas who finally pointed out that he couple didn't like the sun, reminding the others about their eyes being sensitive to light. Cossette found them when they came back inside to dress for dinner, walking with them so as to talk to Victoria. She asked to be allowed to give the two girls a dress each; she'd been working on them all day. Victoria agreed and Lillian and Alice followed her eagerly, emerging for dinner dressed in perfectly fitting dresses made form two of Cossettes own.

They'd sat together at dinner and had all retired to the Jones family stateroom afterwards for a game of cards and a chat. Alice and the twins had long been in bed, Alice still dressed in her evening gown at her own insistence, when the ship seemed to judder, startling the adults still playing cards.

"What was that?" Victoria asked worriedly. Daniel went to the door and opened it, finding nothing out of the ordinary going on in the corridor.

"Probably something to do with the engine," he shrugged and they returned to their card game only to be disturbed ten minutes later by the steward knocking and entering, looking a little pale and more than a little frightened.

"Is something wrong?" Victoria asked.

"Nothing wrong madam, we're just having a lifeboat drill. If you'd all like to dress warmly, put your life belts on and make your way up to the boat deck as soon as possible it would be greatly appreciated," he said, opening a cupboard and pulling out the white lifebelts. He left then and slowly they did as he said, waking the three sleeping children. Alice refused to change her new dress for a warmer one and so Victoria simply put her coat on over it. Cossette helped get Lillian ready at the same time, the sixteen year old behaving younger than her years and insisting on wearing her new gown as well, almost throwing a strop when her mother tried to say no.

"What do you think it really is?" Thomas asked Daniel quietly as he buttoned up his coat. Beside him Laurence was doing the same, his cap already on his head.

"I don't know," Daniel admitted quietly, picking up one of the lifebelts and putting it on Laurence who seemed to still be half asleep, rubbing his eyes and yawning. The girls emerged then and they put the lifebelts on Lillian and Alice who was getting a little tearful, frightened by what was going on.

"Wait! My hat!" she cried, as they were about to leave, the adults carrying their lifebelts rather than wearing them. She rushed into her room and returned with the large hat Cossette had given her, putting it on her head calmly. Cossette smiled warmly down at her and pulled the long pin from her own hair, securing the hat to Alice's head and then they headed up to the boat deck like the other first class passengers. "It's cold."

"Maybe we should wait inside," Victoria said quietly, frowning at the sailors hurriedly preparing the nearest lifeboat.

"No, I think we should stay out here," Daniel said softly, noticing at once the way the deck was tipping a lot more than usual. Alice and Lillian were shivering terribly though and so Daniel stripped off his coat, putting it around Alice and buttoning over the lifebelt. Thomas did the same, shivering almost instantly as he put it on Lillian. "Let's go sit on that bench shall we?"

"Good idea darling," Cossette said softly, taking one of Alice's hands while Victoria took the other. The women and girls sat while the men stood, watching the goings on worriedly, all of them thinking the same thing. This was something more than a lifeboat drill. Officers were barking strange orders and sailors were rushing to obey, their muscles bulging under their uniforms as they pulled on the thick ropes.

"Everyone else is inside," Lillian said, as the Officers seemed to notice the same thing, sending someone inside to fetch the passengers.

"Could I have women and children first please," the officer said when the passengers started to come out. A murmur of panic swept around then, if this was a drill why were they getting in the boats. Victoria stood quickly and pulled her two girls to the front of the crowd by their hands, keeping an eye on Thomas and Laurence as they went. Cossette and Daniel followed.

"In you get darling," a sailor said suddenly, picking Alice up like she weight nothing and handing him to his friend standing the swinging boat. She looked around fearfully as she was pushed into a seat at the front of the boat. Lillian was helped on board then and cuddled up close to her sister. Victoria took Laurence's hand and then the trouble started anew,

"I'm sorry miss, women and children only for now," the officer said to her.

"He is a child! He's only sixteen!" she gasped, holding the abnormally quiet Laurence close to her side. He looked at her apologetically and shook his head before helping another woman into the boat.

"Mother, you go. I'll make sure Laurence and I get on a later boat," Thomas said quickly, worried if his mother waited any longer there wouldn't be a place for her in the lifeboat. She looked at them fearfully. "We'll be fine mother, go with the girls." Eventually she nodded and kissed both of them on the cheek.

"Keep him safe and we'll see you when this is over," she said, hugging them tightly before allowing herself to be helped into the boat.

"Cossette?" Thomas asked.

"I shall stay with Daniel," she said calmly.

"But…" Thomas protested.

"We'll all catch a later one together," she told him. It was too late then anyway, the boat was being lowered. Thomas pulled Laurence along to the railings and the brothers watched their mother and sisters as the boat was lowered. Almost subconsciously they waved.

"There will be another boat wont there?" Laurence asked fearfully, turning his big eyes on his older brother.

"I will make sure you get on one of the other boats Laurence, I promise you just like I promised mother," Thomas said passionately. "Now don't let go of my hand." Laurence nodded and held on tightly as Thomas turned to Cossette and Daniel. "We'll have to try the other boats." They nodded and they head further along the ship, towards the back noticing that it was a little more difficult than usual.

"Is that the band playing?" Cossette asked suddenly.

"Yes," Daniel said, holding her hand in his own. "Try to get your brother on this one," he said as they reached the next boat taking on people.

"I'm sorry sir only women and children at this time," the officer was younger than the other one but said the same thing. Thomas looked at him pleadingly,

"Please, just my little brother. He's only sixteen…"

"I'm sorry I can't. You'll have to wait until later," the officer said, sounding honestly apologetic. "You Miss?" he asked Cossette, holding out a hand. She shook her head and held tightly to Daniels arm. Neither of them would go in a boat and take up someone's space when they themselves couldn't die no matter what happened to them this night. All their worry was for Thomas and Laurence.

"Come on," Daniel said, taking Laurence's arm and pulling them along with the crowd to the next boat. It was much more crowded on the boat deck now, more and more people realising that something was wrong. "Excuse me officer, I have a child here." Daniels powerful voice carried above the noise of the crowd and this officer turned to him, "He's not yet sixteen," he said a little quieter. For a few moments the officer looked at Laurence who was shaking from the fear and cold now. Then finally he nodded.

"When this is over find mother ok?" Thomas said, hugging Laurence tightly, "Tell her I had to stay behind to help."

"But Tom…"

"I'll be alright Laurence. You know me," the smile he shot his brother was completely fake and they all knew it. "Do what they tell you."

"I will. L-Love you Tom," Laurence mumbled, hugging his older brother back tightly before stepping into the boat and sitting beside an elderly lady who immediately put her arm around him.

"I'll look after you love," she said kindly.

"Miss?" once again Cossette was being asked.

"No," she shook her head, "I'll stay with my husband." They moved out of the way to let other women and children on board, Daniel helping to lift them onto the boat while Thomas and Cossette leant against he railings and watched Laurence. People were beginning to panic now as the front end of the ship was slowly going further down, there were screams from all across the ship.

"Tell the others I love them!" Thomas shouted at Laurence as the boat gave a lurch and then started to descend smoothly. Laurence nodded. Soon it reached the water and the oars were sorted out. This time they stayed where they were and watched the boat rowing out to join the others already moving away from the sinking ship. Finally Thomas turned to the couple he'd known for a grand total of four days and grinned, "Unsinkable my foot." They couldn't help it, they laughed.

Time seemed to speed up them as things went from bad to worse and people began to panic, risking their lives and the lives of others in a hope of getting on a lifeboat. Daniel and Cossette wouldn't go and Thomas had long ago realised he wasn't getting off this boat.

"I think I should have stayed in England and just had my mother hate me," he said loudly above the screams. Cossette went to answer but stopped when one of the big funnels suddenly snapped away from its lines and fell onto the sea.

"Oh my God…" she breathed.

"We should get as far aft as we can," Daniel said.

"Aft?" Thomas asked with a frown.

"The back," Daniel explained quickly. Thomas nodded and both of them took one of Cossettes hands and went with the flow of people hurrying up the slanting deck to the back of the ship. Almost all of the boats were gone now and people were jumping from the ship in a hope of getting to one already on the water. "She's going down faster now."

"More water inside the ship now," Thomas shrugged. Eventually they reached the crowded back of the ship and managed to get to the railing on one side, "I told you there weren't enough boats."

"Not the time for I told you so's," Cossette pointed out, clutching the railing as tight as she could as more of the funnels broke off and the deck tipped and tipped. "The bands stopped…"

"Can you blame them?" a young woman next to them asked. Daniel put one arm around Cossette and the other around Thomas, holding them close to him and to the railings as the deck rose and rose. Soon they were struggling to stand and not slip sideways, so many people were sliding down the deck to the water that had covered the front of the grand ship entirely now.

"Never thought I'd die this way," Thomas said quietly, "Always thought I'd die in my bed in the arms of the person I loved." Just as he finished speaking there was the loudest crack anyone had ever heard and the back of the ship, the bit they were standing on plummeted towards the water at an alarming rate. Cossette wasn't the only one to scream.

"What now?" the young woman asked. Slowly the deck began to tip again.

"The end," Daniel said quietly. It tipped more and more this time until it finally bobbed vertical in the water. The three hung entwined with each other from what had been the vertical bar of the railing but was now horizontal. "Move around to the outside," he ordered them suddenly. Cossette went first, then Thomas and finally Daniel. The young woman hanging below them copied them as the ship sank rapidly towards the water, people disappearing into the white froth. "Take a deep breath and kick away from the ship when you hit the water or she'll pull you down."

"How do you know this?" Thomas asked fearfully.

"I read a book on sailing! Just do as I say!" Daniel snapped, for the first time since Thomas had met him raising his voice in anger. The young woman disappeared beneath them and then the cold water hit them.

For a moment Thomas couldn't think, it was colder than he could ever have imagined, like a thousand needles stabbing him all over his body. Then he felt the suction of the sinking ship and kicked like Daniel had said to, hopefully kicking towards the surface. His lungs felt like they would burst, he felt like he was going no where, he felt like was going to die…and then he broke to the surface.

"Cossette?!? Daniel?!?" he shouted, joining the hundreds of other people shouting in the water. The young woman was nowhere to be seen, just dozens of unfamiliar faces. He saw people squabbling over floating wreckage to cling to, he saw people giving up and lying back in the water. "Cossette?!? Daniel?!?" Had they not made it? Had they been pulled down. Thomas was terrified now, for the first time in his life he was alone and he didn't know what to do.

"Thomas!" the shout came from behind him and he turned as quickly as he could in the bulky lifebelt that was keeping him afloat as his legs went numb.

"Daniel?!?" he called out, his voice getting weaker by the second.

"Thomas swim to me!" Daniel's voice ordered. Gritting his teeth Thomas tried, kicking pathetically with legs that just wanted to sleep, paddling with arms so numb they almost hung useless. And then he finally saw Daniel, swimming almost easily towards him. "I thought you'd drowned!"

"I t-thought y-you'd drown-drowned!" Thomas stuttered, his teeth chattering. Daniels strong hand grabbed one of the shoulder straps of his belt and then he was being pulled along by the older man, away from all the other people in the water. "W-Where's C-C-C-C…"

"Cossette? She's over here. Come on, just a little further," Daniel wasn't shivering at all and in his freezing mind Thomas thought that very odd. But he also decided this was not the time to ask.

"Daniel! Have you got him?" Cossettes voice had Thomas going limp with relief; she was alive just like Daniel had said. Finally he could see her, holding an intact deck chair tightly. "Get him on the chair, get him out of the water!" Thomas felt himself being pushed onto the floating chair, lying on his back. Only his knees down were in the water now. He was just as cold though but he could lie back and not worry now, Daniel and Cossette were with him. "He's blue!"

"It's cold Cossette," Daniel pointed out. They were holding onto the chair on either side of him, Cossettes hand touching his face worriedly.

"Wh-Why aren't y-y-you shiver-r-r-ring?" Thomas thought this was not the right sort of time to ask. He saw them look at each other over his chest and then they looked at him with their odd red eyes.

"We've got a secret to tell you," Daniel said at last. Thomas frowned as best he could with his eyebrows freezing on his face. "We're not human, we're not even alive. We're vampires."

"Not r-r-real," Thomas growled. "S-S-Stories…"

"We said the same thing before we were turned," Daniel said gently. "It's the real reason our eyes are red, we're dead and we live off blood."

"B-B-But…"

"We only drink from people who won't be missed and never from people we like," Cossette said softly, stroking his rapidly stiffening hair. Her hair was freezing too but she obviously couldn't feel it. He'd like to not be able to feel it, it was so cold and it hurt…

"E-Evil?"

"No. There are evil vampires who kill for fun but we kill only for necessity," Daniel explained. Thomas gave a silent oh and looked up into the night sky, idly wondering how many stars there were in the sky that night. More than usual surely. "Thomas…we can save you."

"T-T-Too late," he mumbled.

"It's not. We could…turn you," Cossette said quietly, "We could make you a vampire like us. It would save you from this and you would live forever with us."

"I d-d-don't want t-t-t-to live…for-forever…I j-j-just w-w-want to s-s-s-see my f-f-f-family again," Thomas's whole body was shaking on the floating deckchair now. Cossette and Daniel shared another look over him, they hadn't been expecting that answer. Most people would jump at the chance of living forever.

"Please Thomas, don't make us watch you die," Cossette pleaded softly with him, her hand gently stroking the cold skin of his cheek. Slowly he turned his head to look at her fearful face, "I love you almost like a son Thomas. Please let us save you. You can see your family again in a few years if you still want to but please, don't decide to die simply because you don't understand us yet."

"If…if after we have turned you, you still wish to die we could find a way," Daniel said softly. Thomas' head turned over to look at him. It was obvious Daniel had not wanted to say that but he felt the same as his wife, he couldn't sit back and watch his young friend die.

"Daniel!" Cossette snapped at him.

"You'd d-d-d-do that? I-I-If I w-w-w-wasn't h-h-h-happy?" Thomas asked.

"Yes," Daniels voice was choked, he could never imagine killing this boy. Thomas's face turned back to the beautiful night sky as his thoughts whirled around his head, considering everything they'd said, what the pair were like…how much he was afraid of dying…

"Do it."

"Thank you," Daniel breathed, nodding to Cossette. It was she who sank her white teeth into Thomas's cold neck, making him gasp at the new pain, a burning pain. "It's ok, we're here with you. We'll be here with you until it is over and you are one of us." He took Thomas' hand and squeezed it tightly as Cossette pulled back with an unnecessary gasp, wiping Thomas' sweet blood from her lips.

"There we are," her hand stroked his face and hair again soothingly as he blinked slowly up at the sky, "Go to sleep Thomas, just let it happen. We're here, just go to sleep." Their soothing presence, the pain and the cold all worked against him and his eyes shut of their own accord even as he breathed a very quiet,

"Ok…"

~ * ~ * ~

It didn't take Thomas long to die in the water. Cossette and Daniel played dead when the one boat returned, holding Thomas tightly as the sailors examined the bodies. They were picked up the next day and laid out together under sheets on a ships deck, Daniel still holding Thomas' hand, they'd been unable to break the strong hold. Arriving in New York the bodies were taken to the morgue to be identified by relatives and friends. Once there and the coast was clear Cossette and Daniel sat up.

"Get rid of our records my love," Daniel ordered and she took the sheets of the paper that had been filled out about them as he picked up Thomas' still body easily. She then hid the blankets they'd been on and under and the two fled with Thomas, careful not to be seen.

He woke two days later in the abandoned warehouse they'd found to live in temporarily; waking so hungry for blood he almost escaped them before they could stop him. It was daylight out. But then Cossette noticed something odd, while she and Daniel glowed from the light coming through the broken doorway Thomas didn't. He looked human but the hungry black eyes were anything but human.

They struggled to help him through his bloodlust, he could go out in the daylight and they couldn't and he was a lot stronger than both of them. But somehow they managed it and two years (almost to the day) later he could control it as well almost as they could. In those two years he'd come to love being a vampire and Daniel was never called on to come through on his promise to kill him if he didn't like it. They did however have to take him to see his family like they'd promised.

They watched through the windows of the their house as the family went about their lives. Laurence was much more responsible now, taking everything seriously now he was eighteen years old. Lillian was a beauty, a pure English rose. She also seemed to be engaged if the ring was anything to go by. Alice was fourteen now and much quieter than she had been…and she still wore Cossettes hat seemingly everywhere. Victoria was much thinner than Thomas remembered, suffering after the loss of her husband and son. As they watched she'd gone to the mantelpiece and kissed two photographs standing at its centre, one of his father and one of him.

Thomas couldn't watch any more and they left.

War broke out soon after in Europe and they heard such distressing news about their countries that hey felt compelled to return, to England at least. The three of them had never really like living in America, missing England and France too much and so they book passage on the LUSITANIA.

"What is it with us and bloody boats?!?" Thomas has shouted as that ship too sank, the three of them floating together in the water once more. Arriving in Ireland they didn't go to the trial of the Captain who had only been doing his duty, instead heading for England to find somewhere in London to live. Everywhere they went however Thomas had a white feather pinned to his jacket and soon he was sick of being called a conchie.

"What can we do about it?" Cossette asked as she and Daniel sat together on the sofa in their sitting room. Thomas stood before them gazing into the fire.

"I'm going to join up," he said quietly.

"You can't!" Cossette gasped.

"I can. I'm special remember. I don't sparkle," he smiled at them, "And I can't die. I'd be a good soldier don't you think?" So he'd gone, he'd fought for the remainder of the war in France, fighting in trench after trench, watching men die all around him and killing as many Germans as he could. He'd sneak off every now and then, catch a German and drink from him. Never once in the whole war did he drink from someone on his side.

Finally the war ended and he returned a hero to the Cossette and Daniel who by now posed as his parents. If people noticed he hadn't aged in three years no one said anything about it. Peacetime flew by, the roaring twenties and the early thirties. The three vampires lived happily hidden away in London.

But then came another war, a more dangerous one for the people of London as bombs were dropped from the sky on civilians and military alike. And it was in one of these bombings that Cossette found Clara…

A/N Well…that was longer than I expected it to be and written almost all in one go. Let me know what you think. Two more chapters and the regular characters arrive. Promise.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer. I do own my own creations however.

**Summary**: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi's radar, for staying away. This is their story.

**Warning**: Violence and slash (later on). You no likey, you no ready. Kay?

**A/N** The first five chapters are completely about the OC's I have created but have no fear, our favourite vampires and werewolves will be in this story!

**Where Loyalties Lie.**

**Chapter Four: Clara.**

One Christmas when she was five years old Clara's parents took her to see a pantomime of 'Cinderella' and instantly she had been captivated by the dancing, the singing and the whole atmosphere of the stage. From that moment on she was determined to be an actress or a dancer or a singer, anything that would get her on the stage. At the age of eight she convinced her mother to let her leave the little school she'd attended for three years and go instead to a school of the dramatic arts. They'd had to sell a few of their positions to pay for the slot at the school and the different uniforms required, the ballet slippers, the tap shoes, the different rehearsal dresses but they'd managed it. And when they'd fitted Clara for all her clothes her mother had had to admit her daughter did look perfect in the various clothes of a dancer.

So for the last four years Clara had been learning ballet, tap, modern, singing and acting. Her teachers all agreed that she had a natural talent; she was born to be on the stage. Each child had a favourite lesson of course and Clara's was ballet. She worked her hardest on her ballet, excelling in every aspect and often showing the much older girls up. She practised everywhere she went, standing on point at the bus stop, practising her poise in front of her mothers full length mirror, turning pirouettes in the little bedroom she shared with her old sister Kathleen. Along with working hard on her ballet and her other lessons she worked on her image, basing her looks on Shirley Temple. Her hair was naturally blond and a little curly but with the aid of her sister's rolling pins she had perfect ringlets like she desired.

"I've joined up," Kathleen said suddenly one evening at dinner, looking at the thin stew as she spoke. The war had been going on for nearly three years and now at eighteen she was old enough to do her bit like all her friends already were.

"You've what?!?" her father shouted while her mother simply stared at her eldest child in shock. Sixteen-year-old Arthur looked at his big sister enviously, wanting nothing more to sign up and kill the Nazi's himself.

"I've put my name down for the ATS. I want to be a driver," Kathleen explained, now looking up to meet her parent's eyes. There were a few moments of tense silence and then their father erupted, shouting so loudly Clara knew next door could hear it through the walls. Soon their mother and Kathleen joined in, their mother agreeing with their father that Kathleen couldn't go and Kathleen defending her decision. Arthur watched everything eagerly as he shovelled his food into his mouth but Clara tries to ignore them, focused only on herself and her own problems.

Tomorrow was the audition for the Christmas pantomime at the Richmond's Theatre, this year they were doing Cinderella and she was auditioning for the lead. There were eight girls auditioning from her school, three more for the lead, two for the fairy godmother and two for chorus parts. They'd all had to prepare a dance piece, a song and a piece of recitation. Clara wasn't worried about her dance, she was doing ballet of course and she wasn't worried about her song, she'd chosen a popular one that was always on the wireless - 'He Wears A Pair Of Silver Wings'. It was her piece of recitation that worried her. All the other girls had chosen something light and simple but she'd wanted to stand out so stupidly she'd chosen to recite 'The Tyger' by William Blake. Now she was worried she would remember it all or that the casting directors would want something sweet and fluffy like the other girls had chosen.

"Oh just let her go and shut up about it!" she finally shouted at her parents when their arguing continued for a further ten minutes. Everyone stared at her in shocked silence. "Finally, I couldn't hear myself think. _Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright in the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?" _Her parents and sister were still staring at her in shock as she calmly began to recite the poem to herself, playing with the remains of her meal on her plate. "_In what distant deeps or skies burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand…_oh what's the next bit…_What the hand…dare seize the fire?" _

"How dare you…" her father started on her, his glare shifting from his rebellious eldest daughter to his selfish youngest.

"I have an important audition tomorrow and I need silence to practise my lines," she answered calmly, "What does it matter if Kathleen wants to join the ATS? They probably wont have her anyway!"

"That's it! I've stood by long enough and watched your selfishness grow! This is the last straw! You are not going to the audition tomorrow and if you don't buck up your ideas and improve your behaviour you won't be going to that stupid school any longer!" her father shouted at her.

"What?!" Clara jumped up out of her seat, glaring at her father across the table. "That's not fair!"

"I don't care whether it's fair or not. Your sister will not be joining the ATS and you will not be going to that stupid audition tomorrow!" their father shouted.

"Yes I am!" both girls screamed at the same moment.

"No you will not! My word is final!"

"I hate you! I hate you!" Clara screamed, throwing her napkin at him she ran loudly up the stairs of their house, into her room and slammed the door shut. How dare he? How dare he try and keep her from fulfilling her dream of being on the stage?!? This was her big chance, her first audition! She would be going to it tomorrow even if she had to walk to the theatre alone to do it!

~ * ~ * ~

Getting up before everyone else was awake the next morning Clara got dressed into her pretty blue audition dress, almost a perfect copy of one of Shirley Temples dresses, and tied a matching blue ribbon in her hair. Her thick navy coat went on next, her pocket money slipped into its pocket. Kathleen was still snoring away as she picked up her ballet shoes and tiptoed from the room. Tiptoeing down the stairs she picked up her black shoes that were kept with all the others next to the front door and then left the house. She didn't leave them a note. Outside she walked to the nearest bus stop and joined the queue of people going to their jobs.

"You alright little lass?" a woman asked her, "You mum not with you?"

"She had to stay at home," Clara lied effortlessly, "I know where I'm going."

"Are you sure?" the woman asked, a little worried for the angelic looking girl.

"Oh yes," Clara beamed up at her. Just then the bus arrived and all the people in front rushed on, almost fighting for the few seats. Clara calmly asked for a return ticket to the stop nearest the theatre, thankful that she remembered what it was called after going with her family earlier in the year to the same theatre to see a play. The bus conductor wasn't worried about her travelling alone at all. She stood for the whole journey, holding onto one of the poles rather than try and find a seat, watching the busy world pass by the windows. Eventually the bus pulled up at the right stop and she hopped off, her ballet shoes now clutched close to her chest as the nerves began to surface. Not nerves about being in the centre of London alone, nerves about the oncoming audition. There was a queue of girls inside the theatre entrance, all standing with their mothers and fathers and dressed as perfectly as her. She joined it at the back and ten minutes later she was at the front, smiling at the lady who held a pen in one hand a clipboard in the other.

"Name?" she asked.

"Clara Brown." The woman's eyes scanned the small words on the page until she found what she was looking for, Clara's neatly printed name. The pen made a small sound as a tick was drawn beside her name.

"Auditioning for the part of Cinderella?" the woman asked.

"Yes," Clara nodded.

"Where is your mother?" the woman frowned, looking along the queue as if she expected Clara's mother to suddenly appear, "Or father?"

"My father is at work and my mother was taken ill. I had to come alone," Clara said, acting her little heart out to make her voice waver as if she were telling the truth and was worried, "My sister dropped me off but she was on her way to work."

"Will someone be here to take you home?" the woman asked.

"My sister, on her way home from work. I've got to wait here until then," Clara lied very convincingly. The woman nodded, believing her every word.

"The principal auditions start at eleven o'clock. Be on the stage by half ten. Until then you may sit quietly in the theatre or you may rehearse out here in the corridors" she told Clara, pointing to the door which Clara knew led to the theatre and then to the few girls practising dance routines in the foyer.

"Thank you," Clara smiled pleasantly at her and then entered the theatre, choosing a seat away from the other girls watching the boys audition on the stage. Watching closely she easily swapped her street shoes for her silk ballet shoes, leaving the others on the seat next to her. Her coat was draped over the same chair and then not making a sound she stood in the aisle and proceeded to run through her stretches, never once taking her eyes of the thrilling audition going on before her.

She had no watch but when the other girls who she'd heard talking about the principals audition got up and made their way towards the door that led backstage she followed them, a spring in her step as excitement took over from her nerves. None of them talked to her, the new girl who was as pretty as a doll. They were older than her too, a few of them had to be sixteen or over.

"Could the girls auditioning for the principal parts please form a line on the stage," a mans voice called and they all moved as one, walking out onto the stage from both wings and forming a line which stretched right the way across the huge stage. Some girls walked in the funny way ballet shoes required, others clicked in their tap shoes but eventually they were all there, smiling nervously out at the three men armed with clip boards in the fifth row of the audience.

"We'll start from stage left shall we?" the eldest of the three asked, not waiting for an answer, "For now girls we would like you to step forwards, tell us your name, your age and the part you are auditioning for and then turn around three times. First girl." Clara leaned forwards ever so slightly and looked right, towards stage left as the first girl stepped forwards. She counted the girls in the line and found herself to be the fifteenth girl. It took about fifteen minutes before it was her turn. She stepped forwards confidently,

"Clara Brown. I'm twelve-years-old and I'm auditioning for Cinderella," she told them calmly, watching them write it all down on their bits of paper. Then she turned around three times, slower than the other girls had. They made more notes on her general appearance and then she stepped back into line still smiling. The next girl stammered as she spoke. In total there were twenty-eight girls on the stage and just as they were about to let the first girl perform her prepared piece two more stumbled onto the stage, panting and shaking.

"Your late girls," one of the other men said coldly.

"We're very sorry sir. Our bus was diverted because of air raid damage," the taller of the two girls said quickly.

"Fine. Names, ages and parts," the same man ordered.

"Frances and Becky O'Connor. I'm 16 and my sister is 13. I'm auditioning for the fairy godmother and Becky is auditioning for Cinderella," the same girl said, her voice calming down as she spoke.

"Turn around three times. Both of you," he ordered. Both girls looked startled but obeyed, their expressions making some of the other girls giggle. "Thank you. You may join the line stage right now and Helen Seaver, you may begin your performance. Any music required may be given to the pianist."

Clara only now noticed as the first girl clicked her way to the piano in her tap shoes that most of the group had sheets of music. She had none. She'd forgotten them. Oh no! She'd have to perform without music! Her body started to tremble and it only got worse as girl after girl gave performances, most of them really good. Then suddenly it was her turn.

"I don't have any music," she said calmly, walking to centre stage like the others girls before her. She was the first to perform without music. "I shall recite first. The Tyger by William Blake." Her feet settled automatically into one of her ballet positions and her hangs hung naturally at her side, ready to do the actions she'd worked out for the poem to bring some more life to it, adding to her voice and her facial expressions (practised in front of the mirror),

"_Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright_

_In the forests of the night,_

_What immortal hand or eye_

_Could frame thy fearful symmetry?_

_In what distant deeps or skies_

_Burnt the fire of thin eyes?_

_On what wings dare he aspire?_

_What the hand dare seize the fire?_

_And what shoulder, and what art,_

_Could twist the sinews of thy heart?_

_And when thy heart began to beat,_

_What dread hand? And what dread feet?_

_What the hammer? What the chain?_

_In what furnace was thy brain?_

_What the anvil? What dread grasp_

_Dare its deadly terrors clasp?_

_When the stars threw down their spears,_

_And water'd heaven with their tears,_

_Did he smile his work to see?_

_Did he who made the Lamb make thee?_

_Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright_

_In the forests of the night,_

_What immortal hand or eye_

_Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?"_

When she finished her hands settled back at her sides and she waited a few moments to see if there was going to be any comment like some of the other girls had had. There wasn't so she continued, finding her staring note in her head instead of in the music she began to sing in the silent theatre,

"_Some people say he's just a crazy guy._

_To me he means a million other things,_

_For he's the one who taught_

_This happy heart of mine to fly._

_He wear a pair of silvers wings._

_And though it's pretty tough,_

_The job he does above,_

_I wouldn't have him change it for a King._

_An ordinary fellow in a uniform I love._

_He wears a pair of silver wings. _

_Why, I'm so full of pride_

_When we go walking_

_Every time he's home on leave._

_He with those wings on his tunic_

_And me with my heart on my sleeve._

_But when I'm left alone_

_And we are far apart_

_I sometimes wonder _

_What tomorrow brings._

_For I adore that crazy guy who taught _

_My happy heart_

_To wear a pair of silver wings._

_For I adore that crazy guy who taught _

_My happy heart_

_To wear a pair of silver wings."_

She finished to silence once more but she tried not to think on it, focusing on the fact that she had only made three wrong notes in the whole song. A much better job than some of the girls with musical accompaniment had done. There was once again no feedback from the men watching her and taking notes so she settled into her first position and hummed the music of her dance piece quietly to herself.

It was a nice routine, one that she'd helped figure out herself with her ballet teacher. All of her best moves were used but not in one continuous block like a couple of the earlier girls had done, spreading them out throughout the piece with simpler movers between them, linking them. Her big finish as her teacher had dubbed it was eight pirouettes; four at regular speed and four sped up so that she was almost a blur. It was difficult and she'd stumbled a couple of times in practise but now, when it really mattered, she pulled it off perfectly. She was panting as she relaxed from her final pose and looked to the three men.

"Thank you very much."

Her jaw dropped open in shock as some of the other girls laughed, all of the girls before her had got more than that, much more than that! She'd poured her heart and sole out, overcome a difficulty of forgetting her music and all she got was a 'thank you very much'. But instead of protesting she closed her mouth and returned to her place in the line, her head held high. She didn't pay that much attention to the rest of the audition, worrying about her own. It was obvious they hadn't like her but why? She was a much better dancer than any of the other girls here and her singing was good. Maybe her poem had let her down, as she feared it would.

"Thank you very much girls. If you'd like to wait there for a few moments more while my colleagues and I make out decision," the eldest man said loudly to the girls and then they were lost in their own conversation, pointing to their notes every now and then, arguing over who they thought was right for the roles.

"Who do you think go the parts?" the girl to her left asked in a whisper.

"I don't know. Not me anyway. They didn't like me," Clara whispered back.

"How do you know that?" the girl asked with a frown.

"They didn't say anything to me," Clara shrugged, "Maybe I'm too short."

"You are the smallest girl here," the other girl giggled. Clara smiled at her, knowing that the girl didn't mean it nastily, she was just making conversation, "But it's better than being the tallest girl. That girl down there, the one who was late looks more like an adult than a child. She won't get her part."

"You're right, she is very tall," Clara agreed partly. She however thought that Francine or whatever her name was could play her part despite being tall.

"Thank you for waiting girls. Now our decision has been made but if you did not get the part and still want to take part in the production you may audition for the chorus this afternoon. The part of the Fair Godmother will be played by Frances O'Connor and the understudy will be June Templeton," the older man said loudly. The girl beside Clara gasped loudly,

"That's me! I'm the understudy!" she hissed, covering her mouth in shock.

"Well done," Clara whispered to her as the man went on.

"The Prince will be played by Helen Seaver and Caroline Bingham will be the understudy," there was more happy gasps as this was announced, "And Cinderella shall be play by Clara Brown and the understudy will be Becky O'Connor."

"What?" Clara asked loudly, "Me?" She was in shock because she couldn't believe it, the other girls who had gotten no parts were in shock because they had believed as she had, that they hadn't liked her performance.

"If those six would remain on stage we shall discuss your contracts, your rehearsal schedules and your pay. The rest of you may leave or wait to audition for the chorus," the man said as he and his companions walked up the steps onto the stage. The girls who didn't get the parts grumbled as they left the stage, a couple running off in tears.

Clara was in a kind of shock as she listened to the contracts being organised, the rehearsal schedules handed out and the pay discussed. She'd done it. She was Cinderella! When they were released, each girl holding a copy of the contract for their parents to sign and a written rehearsal schedule Clara all but skipped to her shoes. She ignored the glares she got from the other girls and switched her shoes and pulled her coat on, folding the pieces of paper carefully and putting them in her safest pocket. Typing her ballet shoes ribbons together she hung them around her neck and left the theatre, a broad grin on her face as she walked to the bus stop.

She was an actress!

~ * ~ * ~

"Where have you been you wicked child? We've been worried sick!" her mother screamed as she walked through the front door. There were dried tears on her cheeks and her hair was a mess. Kathleen wasn't much better, only Arthur seemed his normal self. "I asked you where you've been Clara!"

"I went to my audition," she answered calmly, standing boldly before her angry mother who was now doing an impression of a goldfish.

"You…went…to…you…audition?" she asked slowly, each word filled with more anger than Clara had ever heard in her mothers voice before.

"Yes."

Her mother's hand moved too quickly for Clara to anticipate and her face snapped to the side from the stinging slap she'd just received. She screamed in anger and pain as her mother grabbed her by the ear and dragged her up to the room she shared with Kathleen.

"You'll stay in here till your father gets home and hears about this! He'll take his belt to you, you disobedient girl!" her mother screamed, throwing Clara into the room. The key turned in the lock and Clara was trapped in her room.

"Don't you want to know how I did?" Clara screamed at the door but her mother was already walking away, back downstairs. She screamed loudly and threw herself face down on her bed, her ballet shoes digging in painfully to her chest and sobbed her heart out into her pillow.

~ * ~ * ~

She was still lying on her bed two hours later only she'd kicked off her shoes and got rid of her coat. Her ballet shoes were hanging on the headboard like they usually did. In her hands were the two important sheets of paper she had been given and she had been staring at them now for almost an hour, tears dripping down her cheeks in a steady stream. Didn't they care at all how she did?

The sound of the key turning in the lock warned her before the door was thrown open and her furious father walked in, his belt hanging from his hand.

"I have been worried sick about you all day! And now your mother tells me you went to your audition, an audition I ordered you not to go to! By God how did we ever raise such a selfish little brat?" he asked himself angrily.

"Don't any of you care how I did?" she screamed at him, jumping up from her bed to glare at him, the bits of paper scrunching up slightly in her hands. His only answer was an angry shout before he grabbed her shoulder and pushed her over the bed. She screamed back at him as he held her shoulders down, letting go of the papers to scratch at his hand as the other one raised the belt.

"It's obvious you need to be taught a real lesson in obedience. I've obviously waited too long to do this," he growled down at her before bringing the belt down against her bottom, hard. She screamed, new tears of pain falling. He'd never belted any of them, never thought they deserved the punishment he'd gotten as a boy. But this was different. He hit the back of her legs and her bottom twelve times with his belt and then jerked himself away from her, crying every bit as much as she was.

"Don't you…care…how I did?" she wailed up at him. He went to leave. "I got the part! I'm Cinderella!" He stopped and turned to look at her, watched as she picked up the discarded contract and shoved it into his free hand, "I'm going to be paid five pounds a week! Five whole pounds! That's as much as you get! Don't you care at all how well I did today?" Slowly he took the contract from her but didn't say anything; instead he left the room and locked the door behind him. "I hate you all! I hate you!" she screamed at the door before throwing herself onto her bed and crying into her pillow even worse than before.

~ * ~ * ~

Her family had been angry with her for a long time after her 'little stunt' as they called it but they grudgingly allowed her to do the pantomime, the money she would be bringing in swaying their minds in the end. It was only when Kathleen ran away to the ATS that they finally began to be nice to her again, their anger and worry transferring to their older daughter who had hidden the date of her medical, gone to it instead of going to her work, passed with flying colours and run away when she was meant to be going to work.

"That horrible, horrible girl! How dare she disobey us like that!" their father snapped the night after Kathleen had run away, leaving them a note telling them not to worry about her, that she was fine and would write when she had settled in.

"She got the idea from Clara," Arthur laughed from where he was curled up in front of the fire reading one of his favourite books.

"No she didn't. I didn't run away. I just went to my audition. I came home," Clara argued back, her foot moving almost subconsciously as she rehearsed some of her many ballet poses in front of the living room fire.

"Shut up you two! She can't have gone without our permission!" their mother shouted, "She's only eighteen-years-old, surely she needed our permission! A signature or something!"

"Apparently not," Arthur muttered.

"Go to your room if you can't keep your mouth shut my boy!" their father snapped and Arthur went, taking his book with him. "I'll go the ATS recruitment stand and ask what can be done about getting her brought back home."

They tried but nothing could be done, Kathleen had done an excellent forgery of her fathers signature and the ATS Recruitment lady didn't want to have to deal with all the hassle so she simply told Mr Brown that nothing could be done. He was not happy about this but couldn't do anything but accept it, similar to how he'd accepted Clara's part in the pantomime.

Now the pantomime was a great success and in the end it ran for an extra month than had been planned. Clara felt that she was in heaven, all the attention was on her and she cut out every review from the papers, cherishing the ones that mentioned her the most. It went to her head more than a little bit and she found herself ordering people around much more than she used to…not that they paid any attention to her or did what she said. Especially her family, they treated her exactly the same, particularly when it came to washing up duty. The only person to do everything she said was June but she always seemed happy to do anything for the girl whose part she was understudying. Only twice did June have to go on instead of Clara when she was in bed with a cold and couldn't possibly sing or dance.

Clara was said when it came to an end but the producer of the pantomime promised he would telephone her at home with the dates of the principal auditions for the next play they were doing that she could be in. Returning to school full time after having been part time for so long was a little strange but she didn't mind, everyone now treated her with a sort of respect. She'd been a lead in a real play; she'd done what they all dreamed of. A couple of the girls were openly jealous and called her names, their favourite being 'stuck-up-china-doll'. This hurt Clara a little, she didn't think she'd changed that much in doing the show but of course she couldn't see what everyone else could see, she'd had a taste of the limelight and she craved it subconsciously now. She wouldn't fit in with a chorus again.

It was a month after the show had closed when the producer had rung with the audition dates for the production of Peter Pan the company was putting on. She was to audition for Wendy Darling and the very instant she hung the phone up she was planning her audition pieces even though the audition wasn't for two months.

Two days after that phone call she was "dead".

~ * ~ * ~

"Mummy, do you think I should wear white or pink to my audition?" Clara asked as the family sat down for their evening meal of Spam fritters, cabbage and carrots. "Wendy wears a night dress so I want to wear something similar so they can see that I would look right for the part."

"Won't all the girls be doing that?" her mother asked sensibly.

"Hmm," Clara said thoughtfully, blowing on a bit of cabbage she'd scooped onto her fork before popping it into her mouth, "Maybe your right. I guess I could wear a little summer dress in red or blue. That would look alright wouldn't it?"

"Enough! No more talk about auditions or plays or dresses at the dinner table!" her father snapped, interrupting her mothers response, "You'll wear what you wear and don't make such a fuss about it."

They ate in silence for a few minutes, no one able to think of something to say to break the silence. In the end no one needed to, the Air Raid Siren sounding loudly at the end of their road interrupted it for them. Clara and Arthur went to stand up but their father interrupted again,

"We'll not waist good food. Finnish your dinners and then we'll go out to the shelter," he ordered. Clara's eyes went wide, she'd seen bombed out houses and watched bodies being carried from them. Staying inside instead going out to the Anderson Shelter in their little garden wasn't the sensible idea.

"John…" her mother said quietly, her thoughts the same as her daughters.

"We'll finish our meals first! I'll not let bloody Hitler interrupt another one of my meals!" he shouted, banging the table with his big fist. Clara and Arthur ate quickly, listening to the bombs dropping far too close for comfort. Their mother barely ate anything more, trembling in her seat and glancing towards the back door every now and then. Only their father ate as if nothing were wrong.

"That was a close one," Arthur said as the table and every other bit of furniture jumped after the last bomb. "End of the street, I'm sure of it."

"John…"

"I'm not finished yet!" he snapped at them, shovelling a Spam fritter into his mouth as the table jumped again. Clara was crying now, she wanted to be in the shelter on her bunk bed. The shelter was safe… All of the front windows shattered and Clara screamed, automatically dropping of her chair and hiding under the table.

"John!" their mother screamed.

"Bloody hell!" Arthur shouted, falling off his chair too.

"Fucking Hitler!" their father shouted loudly.

And then the bomb with their names on it hit.

~ * ~ * ~

"When will this end?" Cossette asked as she walked arm in arm with Daniel down the street, seemingly ignorant of the air raid going on around them.

"I don't know my love," Daniel answered. They were out looking for a meal, someone hurt in the bombing that people would assume had died from their injuries caused by the Air Raid. "Can you smell that?" he asked suddenly, his nose perking up. There was the delicious scent of spilled blood in the air.

"Yes, it's coming from that house," Cossette nodded to what had once been a house but was no more. "Three…no four. Enough for the three of us."

"Two," Daniel corrected automatically.

"Two of course. I keep forgetting that Thomas isn't with us," Cossette nodded as they both began to search the rubble for the people the inviting scent was coming from, "Then again I kept forgetting when he went away for the last war." Thomas had signed up with the army again when this war had broken out and had been sent over seas again and again. Often he was the only survivor of a squad or patrol, simply due to the fact that he couldn't actually die. He was as he'd said before joining the war the last time, a very good soldier to have.

"I've found one," Daniel said as he uncovered a man bleeding badly from a deep neck wound. His lips were almost instantly attached to the pulsing artery, drinking eagerly from the dying man.

"Here's another," Cossette said as she found a woman, her neck snapped, "No good, dead already." She kept searching and soon found a teenage boy, his legs cut off above the knee, blood pumping out of the stumps invitingly. Cossette however wouldn't drink from anything but the neck or wrist so using her sharp teeth she pierced his neck and sucked the blood from him before it could drip out of his legs.

"Delicious," Daniel moaned, licking his lips.

"Very," Cossette agreed.

"Who-Who are you?" the quiet voice made both of them jump away from the bodies, their eyes searching the rubble for the own of the voice. "Wh-What are you doing to my brother?" Cossette noticed the eyes first, looking out from under the remains of the big table. Easily she pulled it away and revealed a girl bleeding only slightly from various cuts all over her body.

"Feeding," Cossette answered honestly.

"Feeding?" the big eyes looked at her worriedly.

"He was already going to die," Cossette continued, for some reason wanting to calm this child they would have to kill or have their secret announced to the world. Even as she spoke to the girl Daniel was moving around behind her, ready to pounce.

"What are you?" the little girl asked, a small hand reaching up to brush the dust from her face and then to shake out her hair. For a few moments Cossette couldn't speak, this little girl was so…perfect. She was beautiful and Cossette felt the same mothering feeling in her chest she felt when she looked at Thomas.

"We are Vampires," Cossette eventually answered.

"Are you evil?"

"Not really."

"But you killed my brother," the girl pointed out.

"He was already dying," Cossette said again.

"Would you have killed him if he wasn't already dying?"

"…yes."

"And you're not really evil?" the girl asked, an eyebrow rising adorably.

"We only kill when we need to feed. We don't kill for fun like some of you mortals," Cossette explained to the girl. Daniel was watching the exchange in complete silence, like Cossette fascinated by the little doll of a girl.

"Mortals?" the girl asked confused.

"People who die."

"You don't die?" the girl asked surprised.

"No," Cossette shook her head.

"Oh," the girl looked around now, looking over her shoulder and gasping when she saw how close Daniel was, "Are you-Are you going to kill me too?" Neither of them answered. "Oh."

"What's your name?" Cossette asked suddenly.

"Clara Brown," the little girl answered.

"How old are you Clara?" Daniel frowned at his wife; they should just get it over and done with. Learning about the girl would only make it hurt more.

"Twelve." Daniel knew exactly what his wife was thinking at that moment, he didn't need to be psychic to see her thoughts when it came to children. She wanted children like any mortal woman did and this child…well her family was dead and people would simply assume she was too. But…

"She's too young Cossette," he said, meeting his wife's gaze.

"How young is too young? Who decides that?" Cossette answered back.

"Too young to what? Die?" Clara asked, her body shaking now. She was almost definitely in shock from both the bombing and what she was hearing.

"No. No one's too young to die," Cossette said almost sadly.

"Too young to join us," Daniel explained.

"Join you?" Clara asked shocked, "Is that possible? Aren't you born a vampire?" Obviously she'd never heard any of the stories floating around about Vampires or she'd already know the answer to that.

"No, you aren't born a vampire in the way you are thinking. To become a vampire you must first be bitten and then you must die from that bite," Daniel explained, leaning in close to Clara's neck.

"Sounds painful," Clara said, leaning away from him.

"It is," he said, continuing to lean closer.

"But it has it's rewards," Cossette said, glaring at her husband before he could kill the girl. The attraction she felt towards Clara was steadily growing, this little girl had captured her heart the same way Thomas had all those years ago. "An eternal life of youth and beauty. Enhanced senses. We even sparkle in the sunlight."

"Sparkle?" Clara asked.

"Like our skin is made of diamonds," Cossette said enticingly.

"Wow…"

"It's not going to happen Cossette," Daniel snapped.

"Why not? You let me turn Thomas. You agreed when we turned Thomas," Cossette protested. Clara looked back and forth between the two, her head beginning to swim slightly. She didn't feel too good…

"I agreed because he was an adult and was already near death. She is nothing more than a child, it would be wrong to trap in the form of a child for eternity, never to grow up…" Daniel said, his voice softer.

"She won't grow up anyway, she'll die tonight!" Cossette snapped. "Daniel please, at least let her choose…"

"No."

"I don't feel so good," Clara mumbled and both vampires turned to look at her very pale face, all the colour had apparently drained out in seconds. Daniel sniffed loudly and then made a small noise of understanding,

"Internal bleeding," he said quietly to Cossette.

"Please let me save her Daniel. Please," Cossette looked up at him pleadingly. They stared at each other for long moments before finally he sighed and looked away.

"Do it if you really want to but know I do not approve of turning one so young, even if she is dying or would have had to die by our hands anyway," Daniel told her, moving away from his wife and the little girl. Cossette eagerly pulled Clara into her arms, running her white fingers through the golden curls.

"Do you want to join us Clara? Do you want to become my vampire daughter?" Cossette asked softly.

"I already have a mother, she's…" Clara looked around and her eyes found her mothers body, the wide eyes staring back as her own filled with tears, "Oh. Did you…?" Cossette shook her head.

"She was already dead."

"Oh." She was finding it hard to keep her eyes open now.

"So would you like to join us?" Cossette asked again.

"Yes please," Clara whispered, "I'm…I'm scared to die."

"I know." Cossette whispered, leaning down to the delicious smelling neck, the temptation to drink her dry overwhelming her for a second before her motherly instincts pushed it down. She wanted to care for Clara and raise her as her own daughter. Not eat her. "This will hurt but I promise I will be here with you until it is all right." Clara nodded and then gave a little scream as Cossette bit into her neck as gently as she could. Soon she leaned back, licking the sweet blood from her lips as Clara gave a loud whimper,

"Hurts."

"I know. Just let my bite do it's work. I'm here. I'll hold you till it's over," Cossette said reassuringly.

"We should take her back to the house. We don't want her waking up a newborn on a busy street," Daniel said, walking to the remarkably clear pavement in front of the wrecked house. Easily Cossette lifted the whimpering Clara into her arms and joined her husband. They were silent as they walked home.

~ * ~ * ~

Clara was a difficult newborn, learning to be very sneaky very quickly. But thankfully she learned to stay hidden early on too, sticking to the bombsites like they taught her to, never eating anyone in uniform as they were easily missed. By the end of the war she was in complete control of her actions and didn't have to fight as hard not to eat the tempting people she bumped into. Of course she had a few lapses, more than the others when her childish ways took over briefly and she thought 'Why not?' In those three and a half years of being a vampire Cossette never once regretted turning Clara and Daniel had quickly forgotten his own protestations and fallen in love with the little girl who was becoming more and more like a daughter to him.

They only ever had one big problem (One big recurring problem) with Clara and that was that she still wanted to dance on the stage and be the centre of attention. Of course this was impossible, rehearsals took place during the day time and there were matinee performances. There would also be a lot of spilt blood as there always was back stage, cuts and scrapes that would be far too tempting. So Cossette and Daniel had had to say no to performing but they would never say no to dancing. Clara took evening lessons with a private teacher, Cossette watching from the corner of the room just in case and now with her extra abilities she was soon the most amazing ballerina Cossette had ever seen. And she never got tired, she could dance for days at a time and still be ready for more (not that her teacher knew this of course).

With the war over Thomas returned and he and Clara almost immediately got on, Thomas seeing so much of his little sisters in her and Clara glad to have a nice older brother, much nice than Arthur her real brother she was quickly forgetting had been. But the problem with Thomas's return in 1948 was that he didn't return alone, he brought the young vampire Ilsa with him…

A/N There we go…and the chapters really long again. What's wrong with me? Oh well. One more completely A/U chapter and then the real story begins.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer. I do own my own creations however.

**Summary**: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi's radar, for staying away. This is their story.

**Warning**: Violence and slash (later on). You no likey, you no ready. Kay?

**A/N** The first five chapters are completely about the OC's I have created but have no fear, our favourite vampires and werewolves will be in this story!

**Where Loyalties Lie.**

Warning: This chapter is about the suffering of the Jews in World War 2. Parts of it may be quite graphic and unsettling. Please do not read this chapter if this would upset you. The story will still make sense skipping it. Also I have tried to be as historically accurate as possible but I'm not perfect so please accept my apologies for any mistakes that I have made.

**Chapter Five: Ilsa.**

Even though the work was brutally hard Ilsa was eternally grateful to the friend of her father who got her the job in the clothing factory, sewing Nazi Uniforms for twelve hours a day in an over-crowded factory with broken windows and no heating. Keeping her head down she forced her numb fingers to work the needle and thread as she sewed the different pieces that made up the uniform hat together, working as quickly as possible so as not to attract unwanted attention from the overseers. Even though she was only fourteen years old she wasn't the youngest worker in the factory; that was a little eight-year-old girl who was in the packing department, folding the finished uniforms and putting them into boxes to be sent out. Looking up at the windows briefly Ilsa noticed it was snowing and couldn't help a small smile breaking out on her gaunt face as she remembered happier times, playing in the snow with her mother, father, brother and sister. There weren't happy times now, only hard times of sadness and grief.

Ilsa was the youngest of the three Freeman children and had been twelve when the family was forced into the ghetto in 1941. Eva had been thirteen but unlike the healthy Ilsa she had never been well before living in the ghetto, always suffering from head colds and stomach bugs. Six months after moving into the ghetto she died. David was the eldest, sixteen in 1941 and had managed to get himself a job in the early months of their new life, working in a boot-making factory. In a subtle way to get back at the people doing this to them he hammered the nails of the souls in a little too much so that whoever wore them would get bad blisters but not enough for the sabotage to be noticed. Now eighteen years old he still worked in the boot-making factory and he still hammered the nails in too far. On the side however he also helped to smuggle food from the outside world into the ghetto, a very dangerous thing to do. Their mother and father were old having had children late in their marriage. He'd been a teacher before the war and ran a secret school in their little rooms, twice a week teaching all of the children housed in the building. It was dangerous, school were forbidden and punishable with death so of course they were all extremely careful not to be discovered. And their mother had been a devoted wife and mother, only leaving the house to make social calls. Now she waited in line for hours to get their bread and soup ration and then defended it like a woman possessed all the way home. It was unbelievable how many desperate people would try to steal someone else's rations, attacking women on their way home.

The whistle was blown loudly signalling the end of the day shift and Ilsa and all the other workers put down their tools and what they were working on, rising from their seats slowly. Once standing they waited for another whistle to be blown and they headed towards the exit as the night shift staff took their seats and picked up the work, continuing where Ilsa and the others had left off. Pulling her shawl tightly around her shoulders she began the long walk home, the snow seeping through the holes in her shoes making her already cold feet feel like slabs of ice. The barrier was down when she reached the crossing to the other side of the ghetto when she lived and she joined the silent group of people waiting to get to the other side before curfew.

"Hello pretty girl," one of the Nazi guards on the barrier said, noticing her in the crowd. People moved out of the way as he and his friend came over to her. Her eyes were glued to her shoes until a strong hand gripped her chin and forced her head up to look at them, "What's your name pretty girl?"

"I-Ilsa," she mumbled fearfully, wishing this wasn't happening. Attention from the guards was something every person living in this ghetto dreaded.

"Ilsa…what?" the guard asked, his hand moving, his fingertips trailing down her neck to the neckline of her faded dress. His friends were laughing loudly.

"Ilsa Freeman," she mumbled. Her trembling was more from fear now than the cold. The barriers slowly rose but the guards hands were still on her body so Ilsa couldn't move, wouldn't dare to.

"How old are you pretty Ilsa?" the guard asked.

"Thirteen."

"So young for one so pretty," the guard grinned broadly at her, his hand pulling her head scarf off so that her hair tumbled loose, "Such pretty hair." The headscarf was dropped carelessly into the snow as he took a firm grip on her head and kissed her unresponsive lips. She let out a sob of humiliation and fear as he kissed her as everyone gave them a wide berth. "Get on your way pretty Ilsa." He stepped away from her, laughing as she scooped up her headscarf and ran away from him, dodging through the crowds of walking people until she felt she was far enough to fell safe…well safer. No one could feel safe in a ghetto.

Reaching the building her families rooms were in she pulled the door open and ran up the stairs, the snow falling off her shoes as she went up each flight of stairs, eventually reaching the fifth floor. Her floor. Nodding to the familiar faces she met in the hall she opened the door to her families two rooms and slipped inside.

"Ilsa? Why are you crying?" her mother asked worriedly from where she was re-heating their soup ration.

"It's nothing," Ilsa mumbled, going to the lumpy mattress on the floor of the main room that was her bed. She and David both slept on the floor on the main room while her parents shared the old bed in the smaller room. "Just the guards making fun of me." She shrugged off her wet coat and hung it on her peg before pulling on her knitted cardigan she wore inside their 'home'. "Is there anything I can do?"

"There some clothes that need mending on the table. I know you've just spent all day sewing but it would be a real help if you could have a go at them," her mother said, nodding to the pile of clothes she'd bartered for down the market. They could fix them up, keep what they needed and sell the others to people who needed more clothes to wear now that the weather was getting colder.

"I don't mind mother," Ilsa said, sitting at the table and bringing out the small sewing kit, stocked with the supplies she'd stolen from her job bit by bit, never taking too much so that it's loss would be noticed. "Where's father?"

"Downstairs with the children, in the Stimler's apartment," her mother answered, "And your brothers out getting some more wood for the fire."

"Where from?" Ilsa asked, knowing that everyone would be out there on the same mission, trying to keep warm in the bitterly cold nights.

"I didn't ask," her mother admitted, "I think the less we know the better."

"If he gets caught taking wood from somewhere he shouldn't…he could die mother," Ilsa said quietly.

"He won't get caught," her mother said quickly.

"I never get caught sis," the voice from the door made them both jump. "You should know that by now." He laughed as he kicked the door shut behind him and dropped a large armful of neatly cut wood by the fire.

"Where did you get that?!?" Ilsa asked in shock. David grinned at her and tapped his finger against his nose. "You're going to get in trouble one day."

"Not me sis," he laughed, flopping down onto his bed, "I'm too quick for the Nazi's Ilsa, far too quick."

"Well just make sure that you stay quick," their mother said, "Now Ilsa go down and tell your father that dinners ready. David, you can set the table." Both children moved to obey.

~ * ~ * ~

It was a couple of months later that the deportations began, the Nazi's taking whole families, even whole buildings at a time. They watched from their partially boarded up windows as people were marched through the streets towards the train station. David followed them once, risking life and limb to find out what was going on. He watched as the people selected were forced into cattle trucks, the doors locked with heavy chains. Nothing was said about their destination. From then on everyone worried that they would be taken next.

Even though the streets emptied more and more each day it wasn't until early 1944, two weeks after Ilsa's fifteenth birthday, that the Nazi's kicked down their door and ordered them out into the street along with the rest of their building. Now even being given time to pull their coats on they were dragged out into the hall and thrown down the stairs. Ilsa clung to her mothers side as they joined the group shivering in the street, surrounded by Nazi's who wouldn't think twice about killing them. They'd all seen some act of barbarity, a child shot for not moving out of the way fast enough, a man shot for being too tall, an old woman shot for being too slow.

"You will walk in silence!" the Nazi officer shouted at the group and mothers literally covered their children's mouths to hush their tears. They turned when ordered and followed the soldiers in front of them through the ghetto to the train station, a good train waiting for them. There was no selection when they were pushed into the goods vans; families were split up as they were packed in like sardines. Ilsa was pulled away from her family, resisting the urge to scream as she was shoved into a different van and the door was shut behind her.

"Ilsa?" a familiar voice asked in a whisper as they all heard the chains being put on the door. The people closest to the barred windows peered out, watching what was going on in terrified silence. "Is that you?"

"Esther?" Ilsa asked, reaching out her hand in the darkness of the goods wagon to the girl that had been their neighbour for the last three years. Esther was nearly thirteen and unlike Ilsa who had the traditional dark looks of her people she the younger girl was very blond and had blue eyes, the perfect Arian looks on a little Jewish girl. A gasp spread around the people in the van as it jerked once and then began to move, picking up speed.

"Where do you think we're going?" Esther asked fearfully, now clutching at Ilsa's hand. She too had been separated from her parents who had been put in the same goods wagon as the rest of Ilsa's family.

"I have no idea."

Their destination was Auschwitz.

~ * ~ * ~

The train journey lasted almost five days, five days standing with no food and only the rain that trickled through the gaps in the roof. By the time the train began to slow down 18 of the 57 people in Ilsa's goods wagon were literally dead on their feet. Hearing the chains being undone Ilsa and Esther stood up from where they had leant against the closed door and turned to face it as it was pulled open.

"Everyone out! Out you dogs!" a Nazi ordered, seizing hold of Esther's skirt he pulled her out of the goods van. She screamed as she hit the muddy floor almost three feet below and the Nazi's laughed. Ilsa jumped down carefully and helped her young friend to her feet, moving to join the other people being pulled out of the other carts. Neither girl could see their families in the growing crowd. "Line up in pairs, women and girls to the left, men and boys to the right. Move!"

"Come on Esther," Ilsa said quietly, pulling the now weeping girl to the left of the officer, joining the growing line of women in pairs. Ilsa watched as the officer was joined by another officer, talking to each other for a few moments before moving to the front of both lines. Walking down the lines of people they ordered the prisoners to either go through the gate on the left or the gate on the right. What happened through either was mystery. Esther had her face buried in Ilsa's shoulder when he reached them and she wisely kept her eyes on the ground.

"How old are you?" he demanded.

"Fifteen," Ilsa answered quietly.

"Right. How old is she?" he demanded.

"Thirteen."

"She goes left." He moved on and a Nazi soldier pulled the two girls away from the line, pulling them apart from each other at the same time.

"No!" Ilsa gasped, trying to hold onto her friend but she was pushed through the gate on the right with enough force to send her tumbling into the mud under her feet. Esther was given the same treatment through the other gate. "Esther!" Ilsa cried, scrambling to her feet and rushing to the wire fence that now separated them.

"Ilsa what's going on?" Esther asked through her tears as the two girls held each other's hands through the gaps in the fence.

"I don't know," Ilsa whispered.

"Ilsa!" her mothers voice came from the other side of the fence and soon her wonderful mother was stood beside Esther, reaching her other fingers through the fence to touch her only surviving daughter, "I've been so worried!" Ilsa pressed a kiss to her mother's lips through the fence.

"Esther!" and then Esther's mother was there, hugging her daughter close to her body. They were all on the other side of the fence to Ilsa. Why was she alone on this side? On the other side the gates were being shut and the guards were herding the people towards a large building quite a way away.

"I love you Ilsa, never forget how much I love you!" her mother said passionately, kissing Ilsa once more through the fence like so many other separated families were doing before allowing herself to be shoved towards the building.

"I love you mother!" Ilsa screamed after her, watching her mother and her neighbours as they walked slowly away from her. Clinging to the fence as tears fell down her cheeks she watched them leave her behind…and then there was her father running to catch up with his wife and hold her close to his body. Her mother said something and just before they entered the building her father turned and looked at her, smiling sadly in her direction. She blew a kiss back at him.

"Form a line over here!" a Nazi officer barked loudly and slowly the prisoners, Ilsa included obeyed, forming a single line away from him. Ilsa noticed that unlike the other side of the fence it was only women on this side. Looking to her right she found another fence and through that fence the same thing was happening to the men. She couldn't see David. They walked slowly when he ordered them to, following him to the small hut like building with two guards standing by the door. "Six in at a time for processing."

The line moved slowly after that, six women entering the hut at a time, everyone trembling with fear at what would happen to them inside the building. After what seemed like an age it was her turn and she followed the other women into the hut. They were ordered to strip and, blushing furiously, Ilsa did so, throwing her clothes into the large pile in one corner of the room as they were ordered. They stood naked as three Nazi 'Doctors' looked them over, often prodding them here and there, commenting on their bodies, and laughing at their abnormalities. Ilsa couldn't stop her tears of fear and her tears of humiliation.

Eventually they were all given sack like dresses, black and white striped with a yellow star on the left breast pocket. The material itched terribly but the grey socks they were given itched even worse. For shoes they had ill-fitting wooden clogs. From this room they were taken to another room with six chairs in a long line, six men with hair clippers standing behind each one. They were pushed down into the chairs and the pins and bows were pulled from their hair and then the clippers went to work, cutting their hair off until each strand was only a centimetre long at most. More tears fell as Ilsa watched her once beautiful locks falling to the floor. A red headscarf was dropped into her lap but she was ordered not to put it on yet by a soldier standing before her with a book and a pencil.

"Name?" he demanded.

"Ilsa Freeman," she answered quietly.

"Date of birth?"

"12.01.29."

He wrote this down and turned to a man waiting behind him.

"823546."

The man nodded and before she could wonder what would happen next had stepped her left wrist to the arm of the chair. She stared at him in confusion and fear as he did the same to her left and then settled down on a stool to her left. He picked up a strange looking pen and then made quick work of his task, tattooing the sobbing girl on her left forearm with the number 823546. This done he released her arms and moved onto the next girl who was being interrogated by the soldier.

"This way girl," a solider at the door said to her and she cradled her arm to her as she walked up to him, only just remembering to take the headscarf with her, and through the door into a smaller room where another chair waited against a plain white wall. On the right side of the chair instead of an arm was a sign with _Jude _on the top line and _K. L. Auschwitz _on bottom. From the wall behind the chair a metal bar protruded with a little plate on the end of it. The only person in there was an officer with a camera in his hands.

"Sit," he ordered and she did so, staring at him with fear filled eyes. The plate on the metal pole pressed against the back of her skull and forced her to sit up straight. He lifted her left arm up by the wrist and looked at her number and then set about adding that number to the top line of the sign. "Look straight ahead and don't move." He positioned the camera and took a picture of her from the right with practised ease. He then moved around in front of her and took a photo of her sad face. "Put your headscarf on and then look at the cross on the wall." She obeyed him, her hands shaking as she tied the headscarf at the base of her skull, hiding her short hair. Another photo was taken of her looking up at the cross on the wall. "Go and join the other women outside."

Stepping out of the hut she found all the women who had gone before her, dressed as she staring through the wire fence at the building where everyone had disappeared into. Ilsa wondered if her mother and father were being processed like she was in that big building. They waited there for a long time as all of the other women were processed and then they were walked to a large hut that they were told was their home from now on. When they entered it was already half full and with all the women entering with Ilsa it was dangerously overcrowded. The wooden bunks were to be shared between three of them and Ilsa found herself wedged between two older women, both with a friendly motherly nature. That first night she wasn't the only one to cry herself to sleep.

~ * ~ * ~

The days passed so slowly in the camp, days of harder labour than Ilsa had ever imagined. People died everyday, some of malnutrition for they weren't fed much, some of illness, some were killed by the Nazi guards and some were taken away to that big building her parents had gone to when they arrived. It hadn't taken long for Ilsa and the others to realise that in that big building people died. The realisation that her parents, Esther and her parents and so many other people she'd known were dead had hit her hard. She, like so many of the others she lived with now, spent her days wondering why she had been spared.

She lost track of time very quickly and didn't know if she'd been in the camp for weeks or months, all that she knew was that she was getting thinner and weaker by the day. If she'd had a mirror to look in she doubted she'd recognise herself anymore. And her personality was changing, gone were her smiles and her happy laugh, replaced by tears, sadness and worry. She hardly spoke any more, even amongst the prisoners in her hut after curfew, only speaking up when she really needed to. And she definitely didn't speak around the guards; she didn't even look at the guards, focusing on her hard labour instead of risking displeasing them.

One day, a day that felt like every other now she and most of the other women in her hut were taken to the train station and put into similar cattle trucks to the ones that had originally brought them all here. This time they weren't as crowded and for the three-day journey they were able to sit down and even get some sleep. They weren't fed of course and this time it didn't rain so they didn't drink anything either. Two women died before they reached their unknown destination. All of them moved away from the door as it was opened but obeyed when Nazi soldiers with rifles, cheerful Nazi soldiers with rifles, ordered them out.

"Hello ladies. Welcome to Bergen-Belsen."

~ * ~ * ~

Amongst the soldiers who entered Bergen-Belsen in April 1945 was Private Thomas Gilbert, known as 'Lucky' to most even though he protested that it made him sound like a pet dog. He'd been given the name by one of the many officers he'd served under over the years simply because that's what he was, a bloody lucky bastard. In all his years as a soldier he'd never once been wounded, his friends couldn't believe it sometimes. He was always the first to volunteer for the really dangerous or suicidal missions. Unsurprisingly he'd he had quite a reputation now in his unit, other units too had heard of him and he had been awarded two medals for his outstanding bravery. Of course no one knew of his unfair advantage. Once again his red eyes were explained with a 'family curse' story.

"Bloody Hell," Bert gasped as they walked into the camp. There were bodies everywhere, in the buildings, between the buildings, between the trees, in the open spaces…everywhere. Thomas' jaw dropped open in shock and horror.

"My God…" Henry sobbed before loosing his lunch at his feet. Standing or sitting around the bodies were people, thin and abused people in striped uniforms or ratty civilian clothes. They were all so thin, the ones in the striped uniforms slightly more so than the ones in civilian clothes. "Why…?"

"Bloody Nazi's!" Bert hissed as he saw the body of a teenage girl.

They were given orders to help the survivors how they could until the medical personnel arrived to deal with the sick. Some of the men were also detailed to force the German Soldiers who had surrendered to move the bodies to a place of burial. The three friends helped the prisoners as best they could, giving them all the water they had in their canteens and what little food they had on them. Then all they could do was hug them when they wanted a hug and help them move when they couldn't move by themselves, taking them out of the disgusting huts to sit in the sunlight and breath fresh air freely. And it was in one of these fowl huts that Thomas met Ilsa.

At first he thought she was dead on her bunk as she was only woman in the long building not to move when the three British soldiers entered, receiving many hugs from the thin women in striped dresses. Then she moved, turning her head weakly to look at them in the dim light. Slowly he went over to her and pulled himself up to sit on the wooden bunk next to her head, looking down at her with a smile.

"Hello," he said in his best German.

"Hello," she replied weakly.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Ilsa," she answered, pulling the blanket up to her neck with her skeletal hands. She looked up at him with a happy smile on her face, "Ilsa Freeman." A hoarse cough had her shaking on the bunk and Thomas worriedly put his hands one her arms, feeling nothing but bone beneath them. "You're cold." He snatched his hands away and shrugged off his overcoat, laying it over the blanket she already had covering her.

"You're sick," he said softly.

"Most of us are," she answered, gesturing with her hand to the other women. "Are you and your friends here to help us?" Thomas nodded; waning to take her hand but knowing his hands would only make hers colder. Usually when he found people like this girl, so close to death, he'd think of them as his next meal. But not this time; not with any of them. They had lived through Hell in this place, they had survived through something no one should ever have to survive…Thomas wasn't going to kill any of them to stop his hunger. He'd find a Nazi to do that. "I'm glad. It will be nice to be free again."

"How old are you?" Thomas asked.

"Sixteen…I think. What month is it?" Ilsa asked.

"April."

"Then I'm sixteen." Thomas was surprised; her worn features made her look older. He'd mistaken her for at least mid-twenties. "And you?"

"Twenty-one."

"Not much older than me," she smiled up at him before another cough shook her. "Why do you have red eyes?"

"Family curse as we call it. Sometime in my families past someone got sick with something that turned their eyes red and now it's passed down through the generations," he answered easily with the well-practised story.

"What will your army do with us?"

"They're turning some place into a hospital to look after all of you and then they're going to try and get you all back to your families," Thomas said softly. Ilsa smiled sadly up at him,

"If we have any families left." Thomas bit his lip. He should have thought of that before he'd spoken. "It's ok. You answered my question." They talked for a while, Thomas doing most of the talking and Ilsa doing most of the listening. Their sergeant poked his head in and told the three they were forming up to do and do some duties and so they had to say goodbye (with many more hugs and Thomas translating everything said for both his friends and the ex-prisoners). Lastly, before he left, he promised to come and see Ilsa again. He left behind his overcoat.

"Didn't know you spoke German," Bert said as they walked away.

"You never asked."

Over the next few days he visited Ilsa whenever he could. She was moved to the temporary hospital with the other sick prisoners of her hut and that threw him for a day but he found her the next day, sleeping peacefully between white sheets but with his overcoat on top. On the eighth day of visiting her (third day in the hospital) he was warned by a nurse that her condition wasn't improving as they'd hoped.

"They told you I'm dying," Ilsa said as he sat quietly on the chair beside her bed. He looked away. "It's ok. I'm dying free. Now Tommy, my Tommy…tell me another story." During his visits he'd been telling her stories he'd 'made up', the adventures of a young man who had survived the TITANIC, spent years in America, survived the LUSITANIA, enjoyed the roaring twenties in London…

"Where did we get to?" he asked.

"He was enlisting in the Army for this war," she supplied where they'd gotten to yesterday. She'd never questioned why the hero of the stories never aged, just listened eagerly to the adventures. The other girls in the ward listened too.

"Ah yes. Well it was the end of 1939 when he walked into the recruiting office, eager to fight for his country in another war…"

~ * ~ * ~

"Private?" one of the nurses asked as he walked into the now familiar hospital.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I'm sorry to tell you that Miss Freeman doesn't have long, she's gotten worse," she said softly, "You've become quite good friends with her haven't you?"

"She reminds me of my sister," Thomas said quietly, saying aloud for the first time the thing that had been rushing around his head. Ilsa did remind him of his sisters, both of them combined into one quiet girl. The nurse patted his arm gently and then let him carry on into the ward. Even if she hadn't told him she'd have known Ilsa was worse. Her pale skin now had a grey tiny to it, her lips and fingertips were a little blue and she was breathing in short gasps. "Hello Ilsa."

"Tommy. I'm glad to see you," she said to him quietly, reaching out for his cold hand, "You're always so cold." He smiled softly at her. "They've told you."

"Yes."

"Don't be sad, Tommy," she smiled up at him, "Tell me more of the story."

"Where were we?" he asked, squeezing her hand gently.

"Dunkirk."

"Of course we were. Well at Dunkirk…" He told the story, his story for two hours. During that two hours she got weaker and weaker before his eyes and towards the end of it he could barely stand it. He didn't want his new friend to die.

"Tommy, can I ask you something?" she asked weakly. He nodded. "The man in the story…is it you?" He smiled fondly at her and leaned down to whisper in her ear, needing to keep his secret from the other patients in the ward,

"Yes."

"How?"

"I'm a vampire."

"Really?" she turned her head, bumping his nose with hers they were so close, "I thought they only came out at night?"

"I'm a special one," he whispered.

"Will you kill me?" she asked.

"You're afraid I'll kill you even though we've spent so much time together?"

"No. I didn't mean it like that. I meant will you kill me before whatever this is does?" Thomas was shocked into silence. "I imagine that death by vampire is relatively quick. This is slow and painful and frightening. I'm not frightened of you."

"Ilsa I could never kill you," he told her truthfully.

"Not even if I asked?"

"…I don't know."

"I want to die outside, I want to see the open sky when I die," she told him, speaker louder now, "Take me outside Tommy, please?" Slowly he sat her up in the bed and made her put his overcoat on properly. Then he easily picked her up in his arms, she weight little more than a feather and carried her out of the hospital. The doctors and nurses watched them go but said nothing. "There's hardly any clouds today," she said as he sat down in a clearing, cradling her in his lap. "I'm glad that I am dying free."

"I don't want you to die Ilsa, you're the best friend I've ever had," he told her.

"We've only known each other a fortnight, you must have better friends than me," she smiled up at him.

"Never," he said, "You will always be my best friend Ilsa Freeman."

"I think you are the best friend I have ever had as well Tommy," she said, reaching up a hand to stroke his smooth cheek, "I wish I could promise to be your best friend forever." An idea came to Thomas like a bolt of lightning.

"You can," he said quickly. "I can turn you, make you a vampire."

"What?" Ilsa frowned up at him, "I don't understand."

"I can make you like me. Immortal. You don't have to die!" he said loudly, looking around to make sure there was no one around them.

"You…could?" she asked him tearfully.

"Yes. You would be immortal like me but you would always look as you do now, if only you could live long enough to regain some meat to your bones," he smiled down at her.

"I don't decide when my body gives out," she told him simply. "Please Tommy…I don't want to die." Tears fell from her eyes, tears of fear and pain and that settled it for Thomas. Ignoring the fact that Daniel would probably be angry with him for turning someone he'd known for so little time and someone who looked so ill he kissed her cheek gently before biting down on her neck. "Ah!" He breathed in deeply through his nose, his hands grabbing her arms a little too tightly. By all that was holy she tasted so good…

"No!" he gasped, throwing himself away from her before he could drink her dry and kill her instead. "Ilsa?" he asked, crawling back to her as she lay awkwardly on the ground, staring up at the sky.

"Burns…"

"I know. I've felt it too. Trust me Ilsa. I won't let anything happen you," he told her, wiping the tears from her cheeks. He sat beside her as she died but this time there was no sadness; only worry…worry that he might not have done it right. As night fell he carried her as far away as he could, uncaring of the fact that was now AWOL from his unit and that she would be reported as missing from the hospital. They'd probably put two and two together and assume he couldn't take her death.

A day later she woke up.

~ * ~ * ~

Thomas had quite a bit of trouble controlling the newborn Ilsa for one big reason; she had been given a gift much greater than his. She could erase a person's memory simply by touching their forehead. Luckily she could also give them back but many times she pulled her little trick on him and then went out hunting alone, dangerously. How she never got caught e didn't know but he'd noticed she tended to stick to Nazi's like he did, instinct probably. They were the enemy after all.

The war ended in both Europe and Japan but Thomas and Ilsa stayed in hiding, moving through Germany and France for three years as she learned to control both her bloodlust and her gift, which had always been a bit temperamental at the start. Thomas had learned quickly never to let her hands near his face. Then in 1948 Thomas took Ilsa home.

"Hello? Anyone home?" he asked, using his key to open the front door.

"Thomas!" Cossette screamed from upstairs, running down them three at a time she threw herself into his arms, "Where have you been?!? They told us you were missing and then the war ended and you never came home and…who is this?"

"Cossette, this is Ilsa. Ilsa this is my vampire mother Cossette," Thomas introduced them as he shut the front door. Ilsa smiled nervously at the beautiful woman as she pulled her green hat off of her head. "I-I turned her in 1945. That's why I never came home until now."

"Well this is surprise," Cossette said quietly, turning to smile warmly at the youngest vampire in the house, "Welcome to the family."

"Thank you. I was afraid you wouldn't like me and wouldn't let me stay," Ilsa admitted instantly. "Tommy said I was being foolish but…well…"

"Tommy?" Cossette asked, "That's a new one."

"He's my Tommy," Ilsa explained. Cossette's eyebrows raised, "Not like that. We're best friends, nothing more. Anyway he's not interested in girls except as a meal." Ilsa giggled.

"Ilsa!" Thomas snapped, slapping her thin arm lightly. He'd never really told Cossette and Daniel that he was homosexual but he suspected they'd guessed.

"Ah yes of course, how silly of me to forget," Cossette confirmed his theory that they'd known for a while. "Well, I have something to tell you Thomas. Ilsa isn't our only new addition."

"Oh?" Thomas asked, "Have you turned someone."

"Yes," she turned to the stairs, "Clara! Come down and meet your brother and your new sister."

"Sister? I didn't know I had a sister!" the child-like voice came from upstair.

"Neither did I," Cossette said just a girl ran down the stairs dressed in a frilly pink dress with a matching ribbon in her golden curls. "Thomas this is Clara."

"You turned a child?" Thomas was more than a little shocked.

"I'm not a child!" Clara protested, "I'm eighteen thank you very much."

"You're as old as me," Ilsa said with a smile.

"And yet neither of us look it. What happened to your hair?" Clara asked.

"It got cut off and now it'll never grown back," Ilsa said self-consciously, rubbing a hand over her inch long hair.

"Would you like to help me with my hair? I want to French Plait it. Do you know how to do a French Plait?" Clara asked, immediately taking a liking to the older looking girl who was in fact only almost a year older than her.

"Yes, I used to plait my sisters," Ilsa nodded.

"Great!" Clara grabbed Ilsa's think hand in her own little one and pulled the taller girl up the stairs, chattering away about what could be down with her hair. Thomas heard the word wig as the two girls disappeared.

"Well, they get on at least," he said finally, "What did Daniel think of Clara?"

"He didn't approve but…she grows on you," Cossette smiled softly, "He's out hunting at the moment but I'm sure he'll like Ilsa. She seems a sweet girl."

"She is. Handy too," Thomas commented as they sat in the sitting room.

"Handy?"

"She has a gift. She can erase peoples memories, entirely or just specific things like seeing a vampire feeding," Cossette looked impressed, "And of course she can give them back too like all the times she'd steal my memories so that she could go hunting alone instead of with me."

"Interesting." Girlish laughter came from upstairs and Cossette smiled, "I finally have my own little family."

~ * ~ * ~

Daniel had like Ilsa right from the very first time he met her, amazingly approving of Thomas's hasty decision to turn her. And Cossette had been right, little Clara quickly grew on Thomas and she was a sister in his heart and mind as much as Ilsa, Alice and Lillian. And Clara had bought that wig for Ilsa, helping the other girl feel a lot less self conscious about the way she looked.

The family enjoyed living in London through the fifties and sixties, especially Clara who loved the new styles of dancing that came along with every decade. In 1975 the family decided it was time for a change but Thomas point blank refused to go on a ship again so instead of moving to another country they simply moved to the English countryside, the seaside town of Bournemouth in Dorset. The family followed the fashion changes through the eighties and nineties although the music of these two decades didn't attract Clara as much as the one before had.

They were happy after the millennium, pretending that Clara was 'home schooled' and that Ilsa was too old for school. Moving every few years to the other side of town so no one would see that they never aged. And then came the year 2008 and with it came Carlisle and Esme Cullen…

A/N There we go, next chapter obviously has our favourite vampires in it…the Cullens!


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer. I do own my own creations however.

**Summary**: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi's radar, for staying away. This is their story.

**Warning**: Violence and slash (later on). You no likey, you no ready. Kay?

**A/N** The first five chapters are completely about the OC's I have created but have no fear, our favourite vampires and werewolves will be in this story!

**Where Loyalties Lie.**

**Chapter Six: Carlisle and Esme.**

When Alice and Jasper had left so suddenly the day before they hadn't only left a note for Bella, they'd left one for Carlisle and Esme too.

_Bournemouth, Dorset. Family of vampires called Gilbert. They won't come to help with the Volturi but meeting you will help them. Alice._

So before going to visit Maggie and her clan in Ireland they took a plane to Bournemouth first. It was raining when they arrived but it didn't bother them as they walked the busy streets of Bournemouth, looking out for the smell of the unfamiliar vampires. It took them nearly four hours before they picked up anything that wasn't a warm blooded human. They followed the scent to a dark alley behind one of the many clubs of Bournemouth and it was there they found one of the Gilbert family.

"Come on, show me what you got," the drunk girl in the vampires arms slurred at him, pulling at his clothes.

"I've got something to tell you love," he told her seductively, nipping at her ear. She moaned loudly. "I'm gay."

"Like hell your gay!" the drunk girl laughed.

"Oh trust me I'm gay but I'm also very, very hungry," he purred in her ear.

"Hungry?" the girl asked.

"Very hungry," the boys lips travelled down the girls neck in what she thought was a pleasurable move but what the two vampires knew was much more. The girls who attitude changed when his teeth pierced her skin.

"What are you doing?" she screamed, trying to push him off. He didn't answer, just covered her mouth with one hand, the other holding the side of her throat as he drank her body dry. Stepping back he let her body drop to the floor and turned calmly to face the other two vampires, wiping the blood from his lips.

"Enjoy the show?" he asked.

"Not really," Esme answered.

"What do you want?" the boy asked, pulling a knife out of his boot, "Oh and please excuse me while I cover my tracks." With a too practised ease he sliced at her exposed skin before adding a few more bites to various points of her body. "I don't hear much of an explanation."

"Are you a Gilbert?" Carlisle asked.

"I'm not giving you a name until you explain why you watched me, or rather why you watched and didn't join in. Or approve apparently," the boy said calmly as he cleaned the knife and put it away.

"We don't eat people," Carlisle said.

"Really?" the boy asked with a frown.

"We live off animals," Carlisle explained further.

"Strange. So that explains the not joining in and the not approving but why find me in the first place?" the boy asked, walking up so that he stood in front of them, the girls body easily dismissed by the other vampire.

"One of our coven can glimpse possible futures and she advised we seek out the Gilberts of Bournemouth. Are you one or should we continue our search?" Carlisle asked calmly.

"See the future huh? Handy," the boy said slowly, looking thoughtful for a few moments before he continued to speak, "My name is Thomas Gilbert. Now what do you with my family?"

"We don't really know," Esme admitted, "Alice just told us…"

"Alice?" Thomas interrupted. "She's called Alice?"

"Yes."

"Huh. Small world," Thomas laughed softly.

"What do you mean?" Esme asked.

"My littlest sister was called Alice, back when I was human," Thomas explained, a fond smile on his lips. "Sorry, memory lane is now closed. So what did your Alice tell you?"

"That we should meet you, that we can help you," Esme said quietly.

"Help us? What makes you think we need help?" Thomas asked.

"We don't question what Alice sees, we just…do as she suggests," Carlisle explained calmly, "Truthfully we are searching for Vampires to return with us to our home in Forks, to help us in our time of need. But Alice has already told us that your coven ill not come, she did not say why, only that you wouldn't. What she did say about you was that our meeting you would help you. And no, she didn't say how."

"Bit vague for someone who can see the future," Thomas pointed out.

"The future changes every time someone makes a decision," Carlisle answered, still calm, "Will you take us to your family. I believe it will be dawn soon." Thomas pulled a mobile phone from his jeans pocket and flipped it open.

"You've got an hour and a half till the sun comes up," he told them.

"We've got an hour and a half? What about you?" Esme asked.

"Not a problem," Thomas shrugged. "Now shhhh, I'd best call Daniel before I bring you home. He might say no." He dialled the number quickly and put the phone to his ear, turning away from them as he waited for the person on the other end to pick up. "Hi Daniel…yeah, see there's an actual reason for me calling this time…well I've got two vampires here who have a girl in their coven called Alice who can sort of see the future…no I'm not kidding…anyway the girl, Alice, told them to find us…some ridiculous sounding bollo-buttonhooks about their visit helping us…yeah, so you want me to bring them home or tell them to buzz off?" Carlisle and Esme looked at each other as Thomas listened to Daniels reply on the phone, "Ok, see you in a bit. Warn the others ok? And tell Clara to be nice. Bye." He snapped the phone shut and turned to them. "Follow me…oh. I've forgotten to ask your names."

"Carlisle and Esme Cullen," Carlisle supplied them readily.

"Right. Follow me Carlisle and Esme."

~ * ~ * ~

"Clara it's your turn to do the blackouts," Cossette pointed out as the sun started to rise on the horizon. Clara, halfway up the stairs, sighed unhappily before walking back down and beginning to go around the house, pulling the thick black blinds down on all the windows. Then when they were all done she ran up the stairs as fast as her legs could carry her. "Don't forget to do the upstairs windows!" Everyone heard the grumble of annoyance as Clara did as she was told.

"What do you think she'll change into?" Daniel asked from his chair, legs crossed casually as he read his current book. He'd relayed the conversation he'd had with Thomas to the three women of the house ten minutes earlier. Clara had immediately looked down at the jeans and t-shirts she'd been wearing and decided that her outfit was not suitable for meeting new people.

"A pretty dress that makes her look even more like Shirley Temple than she normally does," Cossette laughed softly, re-arranging the vase of flowers on the coffee table between the two of them. Ilsa walked into the front room, dressed in baggy jeans, a black cotton blouse with baggy sleeves and her long brown wig. "You look nice Ilsa."

"I don't care about nice. I'm hiding my arms and my legs," Ilsa shrugged, sitting down on the settee, tucking her feet up under her bum, "And my unusual hair cut of course."

"Well you still look nice."

"Thank you."

Clara was still changing in her room when they all heard the key slip into the lock on the front door. Daniel and Cossette walked into the hall as the door opened and Thomas entered first, followed by a young couple that didn't seem threatening. In fact they sent friendly and apparently nervous smiles to Cossette and Daniel.

"Welcome to our home," Cossette said, her voice soft and friendly. "Shall we go and sit in the front room?" They followed her into the cosy room, Ilsa sitting up as they entered. Thomas and Daniel brought up the rear. "I am Cossette and this is my husband Daniel. You've already met Thomas, our son and this is Ilsa our youngest daughter." Ilsa nodded to the couple.

"I am Carlisle Cullen and this is my wife Esme."

"We'll just wait for Clara, our elder daughter," Cossette said, sitting by Ilsa. Everyone took various seats around the room as Ilsa muttered,

"Only by a technicality."

"I should warn you about Clara," Daniel said quietly.

"Warn us about what?" Esme asked.

"She's…" Daniel didn't get to finish as the vampire in question skipped down the stairs silently and into the room, dressed in a light pink dress, ballet slippers and a huge bow in her blond curls. Esme and Carlisle stared at her in open-mouthed shock. "…different."

"I'm not that different," Clara protested, standing before the shocked couple, "Hello I'm Clara." They said nothing, just stared at her. Clara frowned. "It's polite to introduce yourselves."

"You're a child," Esme whimpered.

"No I'm not," Clara glared at the now shaking American woman.

"You have an Immortal Child," Carlisle said quietly, looking at Daniel, "Do you know what the Volturi would do if they found out about her?" Their own plight was momentarily forgotten as they stared at the little girl in front of them.

"That's why we make sure they don't find out about her," Daniel answered calmly, "Clara, this is Carlisle and Esme Cullen. You'll have to excuse them for their momentary lack of manners I think, you've given them quite a shock."

"I'm not an Immortal Child," Clara glared at the couple, "Immortal Children cannot control their hunger and will expose themselves without a second thought. I've read about them, I've heard the rumours about them. I know for sure that I am not one." She put her hands on her hips, "I know how to control my hunger, I know how to wait for the perfect moment to strike, I know how to keep a secret and I know how to cover my tracks." She turned away from them and walked out of the room, shouting over her shoulder as she started up the stairs, "I am not an Immortal Child!"

"I'll go sit with her," Ilsa said quietly, following her sister from the room.

"She gets touchy when people call her an Immortal Child," Cossette said, "Understandable. As she said she is definitely not one."

"So other people have known about her?" Carlisle asked confused, "You said that other people had called her an Immortal Child. That means other vampires have met her. How have you kept them from going to the Volturi?"

"Ilsa was gifted with a special power. She can take away peoples memories, specific parts or just entirely," Daniel explained. "She can give them back and also give her own to someone else if she wants to. "

"Will that happen to us when we leave?" Esme asked.

The silence was answer enough.

"Why have you come to us?" Daniel asked.

"We were told to," Carlisle answered.

"Ah yes, Thomas did say something about your coven having a girl who can see the future. Shouldn't she have known about Clara then?" Daniel asked.

"Alice was a little…vague in her instructions. She told us to find you, she told us you wouldn't help us but we could help you," Carlisle explained. "I don't see how we'll be able to help you if you take away our memories however."

"We don't need your help so it doesn't matter," Daniel said angrily.

"Why are you eyes that strange colour?" Cossette asked suddenly. "Why are they not red like ours and the others of our kind?"

"We do not eat people," Carlisle said calmly, "We eat animals."

"You're kidding," Thomas said from his seat.

"I am not," Carlisle looked at him, "It is our choice. We prefer to live with the humans not live off them. Animal blood is more than enough to live on."

"It doesn't as nice though. I had to eat a horse once, it made me want to be sick," Thomas made a disgusted face.

"It does take some getting used to," Carlisle admitted, "But my children, my wife and I all believe it is a better way to live." Thomas snorted loudly, making his opinion known immediately.

"How many children do you have?" Cossette asked.

"We have adopted five children into our family," Esme answered, "No, sorry. Six. We recently gained another." She'd forgotten to include Bella.

"And they are all happy with your ways?" Daniel asked.

"We believe so. You would have to ask them yourselves for their honest answers," Carlisle answered honestly.

"Your girl who can see the future, she said that we wouldn't help you. What is it that we won't help you with?" Thomas asked, folding his arms over his chest as he leant back in his seat.

"For the last year and a bit we have been friends with a human girl called Bella," Carlisle began only to be interrupted,

"You're friends with a human?" Daniel asked shocked.

"She and one of my sons were in love from the moment they met, they just didn't know it. A few months ago they were married and went away on their honeymoon. When she returned she was pregnant."

"With his child?" Cossette asked shocked.

"Yes."

"But…didn't it kill her?" Cossette asked.

"No but only because we turned her once the child had been born," Carlisle explained, "The child, a girl they named Renesmee, is half-human, half-vampire. Her heart beats but she lives off blood. She is also growing at an extraordinary rate and already looks much years older than she should."

"And you reacted so about Clara when you have your own problem that the Volturi will kill you all for," Daniel laughed, "You're own Immortal Child."

"Renesmee is not an Immortal Child. She grows; she is not at a fixed age. She will grow and learn and become one of us," Carlisle said. "But we are afraid the Volturi will kill us before they will listen to our explanation."

"An old friend of ours who is afraid of Immortal Children saw Renesmee and went to the Volturi. They are now on their way to kill her and us," Esme said.

"We are in search of people, of friends who will come and meet Renesmee and stand with us when the Volturi arrive," Carlisle finished. There was silence when they finished their story and in that silence Thomas rose from his seat and left the room. "Have we offended him?"

"No, he'll have gone to tell the girls your story," Cossette answered, "And it is quite a story. But as your daughter predicted we will not be coming to help you. We cannot risk our own family."

"We understand," Carlisle said softly.

"Thank you," Daniel said, equally as soft. "Where will you go after your stay with us? I doubt you came all the way to England just to meet us."

"No, we have friends in Ireland who will help us. We will go by plane once it is dark again," Carlisle answered.

So they stayed and talked with the family of vampires for the rest of the day. Eventually Clara was convinced to come down from her room, Ilsa and Thomas coming with her. The conversation varied from everything to anything, from Clara's dancing to Rosalie's love of cars.

Eventually night came and they said their goodbyes to the family. Ilsa was the last to hug either of them and when they stepped out into the cold night air neither of them could remember what they were doing in Bournemouth, could only remember their mission and what needed to be done. They went to Maggie and they went home, challenging the Volturi with all the gathered witnesses. Of course it was Alice's arrival with Huilen and her nephew Nahuel, and Nahuel's story that saved the day.

The Volturi left and thing returned to normal for the Cullens and their friends, normal until they got a visit from some unknown friends…

A/N There we go, shorter chapter I know.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer. I do own my own creations however.

**Summary**: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi's radar, for staying away. This is their story.

**Warning**: Violence and slash (later on). You no likey, you no ready. Kay?

**A/N** The first five chapters are completely about the OC's I have created but have no fear, our favourite vampires and werewolves will be in this story!

**Where Loyalties Lie.**

**Chapter Seven: Visitors.**

"They're coming!" Alice suddenly gasped, clapping her hands together as she jumped up from her seat, her book dropping to the floor. Everyone turned to look at her from where they were dotted around the family room of the Cullens house.

"Who are?" Bella asked from where she was playing with Renesmee on the rug in front of the roaring (completely unnecessarily of course) fire.

"I've got to get the spare rooms ready!" With no more explanation than that she was running out of the room and up the stairs. Everyone stared after her in confusion for a few moments before turning to Edward. He merely shook his head, the only thing he'd gotten from Alice's excited mind was an image of a pair of ballet slippers and that confused him greatly.

For the rest of the week the family rarely saw Alice, not even Jasper was allowed to see what she was doing in the two large guest rooms. They'd all tried but she'd put up signs, 'Enter on pain of death'. Knowing Alice like they did they left her alone. She went shopping again and again and returned with bags full of things they could only guess about. Three huge mirrors were delivered to the house and Emmett allowed to carry them into the room they were needed in. Once his job was done he gathered everyone else together and told them what he'd seen.

"The furniture was gone except for a couple of chairs and a table. And she made me fix the mirrors to one of the walls, all three in a row. It was weird."

Everyone was both intrigued and puzzled.

Three large boxes were delivered next and Alice took them away before anyone could open them and peer inside. For the next day and night there were bangs and the sound of a power drill from the room with the mirrors in.

By then everyone had gone way past intrigued and puzzled.

On Monday afternoon the sign came down, Alice emerged dressed in her best and sat staring at the front door in complete silence.

"Alice? What's going on?" Jasper asked, sitting by his wife.

"They're coming," she smiled at him broadly.

"Today?" he asked.

"Yup. In about…" she looked at the old grandfather clock, "…fifteen minutes." Everyone looked at each other worriedly and then joined Alice in watching the front door, everyone except Renesmee who was happily sat on Edwards lap reading a book far too old for her.

Almost exactly fifteen minutes later the door bell chimed.

"I'll get it!" Alice screamed like an excited child, running over to the door and throwing it open before anyone else could move or argue that they wanted to open the door to whoever their mysterious visitors were. "I'm so glad you came!" Alice squealed to the person that they couldn't see yet as Alice was in the way. There was a yelp of surprise as the hyper vampire threw her arms around them. "Come in, come in. The others are all here. You can get it over and done with and then the others came come!" Alice laughed happily, pulling their visitor into the house and shutting the door loudly behind them.

"You must be Alice," their visitor finally spoke, her voice soft and gentle.

"Uh-huh," Alice nodded eagerly.

"You saw us coming," it wasn't a question from the thin vampire standing beside Alice facing the family of vampires.

"Uh-huh," Alice nodded again.

"She's been getting something ready for your arrival for the last four and a half days," Rosalie said, looking their guest up and down. The first thing she and all the others had noticed were her vibrant red eyes. The second was how awfully skinny she was, her clothes literally hanging off of her body.

"What?" the girl asked Alice with a frown.

"A present for Clara," Alice answered still grinning, "And a room for you all to use as your own while you stay with us."

"You've seen us staying have you?" the girl asked. Alice nodded. "Oh."

"Who are you?" Emmett asked bluntly.

"Ilsa Gilbert," the girl supplied readily, turning to face Carlisle and Esme, "And we've met before." Both of the older vampires frowned.

"No we haven't," Carlisle said firmly.

"Yes, we have," Ilsa said lightly, walking towards them quickly and touching them both on the arm. They both jumped slightly like she'd shocked them with electricity and then they just…stopped.

"What have you done to them?" Rosalie demanded, all of the other vampires on their feet now, ready to attack Ilsa at any moment. Alice moved in front of the quiet girl quickly, holding her hands up to her family.

"It's ok. I've seen this," Alice said reassuringly, "Well not this version but I've seen four different ways that this could have played out and in none of them were Carlisle and Esme harmed." The others paused in their attacks but didn't back down.

"Just give them a few moments. Giving them back takes a little while," Ilsa said softly, peering around Alice at the people ready to kill her.

"Giving what back?" Emmett asked.

"Memories," Edward said, his voice confused as he heard her thoughts. Ilsa frowned at him, how had he known that?

"Memories?" Rosalie asked, sounding even more confused than Edward.

"Our memories," Carlisle spoke softly, startling everyone. "You took our memories." This was said with a finger pointing at Ilsa as he and Esme started to move again, Esme covering her mouth in shock at whatever she could now remember.

"We told you we would," Ilsa said calmly.

"Yes, you did," Carlisle sighed, "Are the others coming?"

"When I call them. They're in New York at the moment," Ilsa nodded, "So are all your memories of your time with us back? I think I got them all but putting them back is much harder than taking them away in the first place."

"I remember everything," Esme said softly, "I remember…Clara."

"Ah yes, Clara," Ilsa smiled and nodded, "You wouldn't believe how excited she's been to visit America for the first time. She even made us come over by boat so that it felt even more like a holiday than it already did."

"Boat?" Emmett asked.

"A cruise," Ilsa explained further, "How she got Thomas to step foot on a boat again I'll never know. Tommy does not do boats." She laughed softly to herself. "He barely left the cabin for the whole trip. Meant I got stuck taking Clara round everywhere. Avoiding the sunlight of course."

"Of course," Bella murmured.

"Why doesn't he like boats?" Jasper asked.

"It's not my place to say. You can ask him when you meet him," Ilsa said, "He probably wont tell you though, my Tommy likes his secrets."

"Your Tommy? Are you and he…?" Emmett asked.

"No!" Ilsa half-laugh, half-shouted, "Definitely no. Friends. Nothing more."

"So why do you call him 'My Tommy'?" Jasper asked.

"Old nickname," Ilsa smiled fondly at the memory. Edward gasped loudly. "What?" Ilsa frowned at him. She'd only been thinking about the day that Thomas had saved her, thinking of his kind face the first time she'd seen him in that Hell on Earth. She was sure she hadn't said anything out loud.

"I'm psychic," Edward said simply.

"Oh," Ilsa mumbled. That explained earlier too. "Right."

"What did you see Ed?" Emmett asked.

"Nothing." Ilsa smiled at him thankfully, she didn't want to share her past until she completely trusted them all.

"So can I call them and tell them to come?" Ilsa asked the group.

"Yes!" Alice answered eagerly, "They have to come! They have to! Please?"

"If Alice has seen it…" Esme said quietly.

"I have. I've seen many different versions too. I've also seen what will happen if they don't stay," he voice dropped considerably for the last sentence.

"Bad?" Jasper asked his little wife softly.

"Volturi bad," Alice answered. A shiver went through the coven as they remembered their recent meeting with the brutal Volturi.

"Call your family," Carlisle ordered Ilsa calmly.

"Thank you," she smiled at him before pulling out her mobile phone, flipping it open and finding the right number on her contacts list. "Clara? Clara I…Yes I've given them back their memories…yes I've met their children…yes they seem nice…Clara! You can come!" She held the phone away from her phone and they could all hear the excited screaming down the phone. "Have you fed recently? Were they drunk? High. Great. No wonder you're so hyper. I'll see you in a couple of days. Yes I'll be fine…Yes I'll warn them about you. Fine. Tell the others I love them. Of course I love you too. Be Clara."

"What did that mean? Rosalie asked. Ilsa frowned at the gorgeous looking girl. "Warm us about her. What do you have to warn us about?"

"Ah," Ilsa said, shooting glances at Carlisle and Esme. Alice giggled beside her and Ilsa assumed she must know the big secret about Clara. Edwards wide eyes suggested he did too. Stupid psychic. "Well. She's not like the rest of us. When she was turned she was only…twelve years old."

"Twelve?" Rosalie gasped loudly.

"Yeah. Imagine a cross between Shirley Temple and the girl vampire in Interview With A Vampire. That's Clara," Ilsa explained quietly. "She's not dangerous unless your human. But she can control herself just as well as we can. She'd never, ever let herself be caught in the act or leave evidence to suggest a vampire killing."

"An Immortal Child," Jasper said quietly.

"She hates being called that," Ilsa warned him, "And at least wait until you meet her to condemn her. She isn't a threat. Just like your girl isn't a threat."

"Renesmee," Bella supplied the name automatically.

"Just like Renesmee isn't a threat. The only difference between them is that Clara will forever be twelve years old," Ilsa said honestly.

"We will wait until we meet her," Edward said calmly, becoming the voice of the Cullen/Hale children. And what a meeting it would be…

A/N Next, Visitors Part Two. I just felt the need to split this chapter up.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer. I do own my own creations however.

**Summary**: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi's radar, for staying away. This is their story.

**Warning**: Violence and slash (later on). You no likey, you no ready. Kay?

**A/N** The first five chapters are completely about the OC's I have created but have no fear, our favourite vampires and werewolves will be in this story!

**Where Loyalties Lie.**

**Chapter Eight: Visitors Part Two.**

"But I want to see the Whitehouse," Clara said sulkily. She'd relayed Ilsa's message to the others and they were now preparing to leave their hotel, rent a car, which Thomas would drive and get on their way to Forks. Or Cutlery as Clara had taken to calling the American town.

"We'll see it another time Clara," Cossette said patiently.

"But what if they kill us?" Clara asked unhappily, "We can't exactly go site-seeing if we're all dead!"

"She has a point," Thomas commented.

"You're not helping!" Daniel snapped at him, "Clara they won't kill us. You've met Carlisle and Esme; you know what sort of people they are. If they didn't want to get mixed up in our troubles they'd let us wipe their memories and we would go back home and continue like nothing has happened."

"Carlisle and Esme might but what about their children? What if they aren't as nice as Carlisle and Esme? What if they won't listen and assume I'm an uncontrollable Immortal Child? They could go all crazy on us and kill us all!" Clara screamed at him, "Please can we go and see the Whitehouse?

"No! Now go get ready to go," Daniel ordered Clara who put on her most sulky pout and folded her arms slowly across her chest.

"What are we going to do about the sun?" Cossette asked, deciding now was the right time to interrupt this argument before it got any worse i.e. before it got physical. Despite being so small Clara was just as strong as the rest of them and could do just as much damage as anyone else. Now Cossette had a very good point. It was raining today so there wasn't going to be a problem but she'd just checked the forecast and their journey was going to take place in sunshine from tomorrow morning. People might notice people shining in their car…

"I'm afraid you three will have to hide under blankets until the sun goes in," Thomas said apologetically.

"Great! Blankets!" Clara shouted angrily, throwing her arms out to her sides, "This just gets better and better! Next thing you know you'll be saying we aren't going to stop for food on the way." There was silence as the three adults looked to each other quickly. "We are going to be stopping for food aren't we?"

"Well…"

"No! We **are **going to be stopping for food! Like hell I'm gonna wait for who knows how bloody long for a-"

"Clara! Language!" Cossette snapped.

"We'd better be stopping for food on the way is all I'm saying," Clara said.

"Or you'll do what? Throw a temper tantrum?" Daniel asked sarcastically. Until today Clara had been having the time of her un-dead life. The eight-day cruise on the QE 2 had been non-stop for Clara, doing everything that was possible whilst avoiding the sun and pretending to have to sleep at some point in the night. Then whilst Ilsa was off talking to the Cullens they'd gone shopping in New York, they'd taken in three different shows on Broadway and had gone for a day trip to the Statue Of Liberty. But now that they were actually going to meet them she was the worst person to be around the world, just one temper tantrum after another.

"I'll-I'll go hunting on my own and I won't tell you where I went and you'll be all worried and…"

"…and we'll ask Alice to look into your future and see where you are," Thomas finished calmly for her. "She can see the future remember?" His little sister turned to glare up at him.

"I can be very annoying when I want to be," she said threateningly.

"Only when you want to be?" Thomas chuckled.

"Oh I hate you!" Clara screamed at them all, running into her room from the communal family room, slamming the door loudly after her.

~ * ~ * ~

The bellboy had loaded all their suitcases into the trunk of their very nice and very expensive rented car. Thomas unashamedly checked the cute young mans ass out as he did so. Clara climbed into the front passenger seat sulkily, holding the thick blanket on her lap. Cossette and Daniel shared s look before sliding into the back seats, Daniel helping Cossette before walking around the car and getting in the others side. Thomas paid the bellboy a huge tip, his hand touching the firm bum gently as he walked to the drivers seat and climbed in. The bellboy stared at them in shock as the car pulled away easily and joined the traffic of the city.

It took them half the day to get out of the city and the car didn't increase above fifteen mph until then. Once out of the city Thomas pushed the car to the very edge of the speed limit. Clara flicked through the radio stations, unable to pick one and then finally pulled out her Ipod, listening to it loud enough for the others to hear the music too over the classical music she'd left playing on the radio. Cossette and Daniel chatted happily together in the back seat, holding hands between them. Thomas occasionally joined in their conversation but mostly he focused on driving on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car with idiot drivers seeming to be playing target practice with their car.

~ * ~ * ~

"You made this?" Ilsa asked in shock as Alice pulled her into the dance studio, followed by everyone else who also wanted to see the new rooms. "All of this?" Alice giggled as she nodded before putting a CD on the very expensive looking music system. Beethoven. "This is my favourite."

"I know," Alice answered.

"My mother used to play the piano. Not extremely well but her best and favourite piece was the 'Moonlight Sonata'. She used to play it to me before I went to bed, when we still had our piano," Ilsa said softly, sadly. "Clara's favourite is 'Cartoon Heroes' by Aqua of all things. She loves that song."

"Never heard it," Bella said.

"Oh you will do. The music system has an Ipod dock and I've seen her dancing around here, once in pyjama's," Alice laughed loudly. "I've also seen her teaching me and Renesmee ballet in this room and I can't wait."

"She tried to teach me once but…I'm not a dancer," Ilsa laughed softly and everyone joined in softly, Bella muttering that she wasn't going to be learning how to dance…ever. Her clumsiness had not gone away after all. Alice gasped suddenly, drawing all eyes to her, silencing the cheerful laughter,

"Charlie's coming to see Bella!" she gasped loudly and everyone turned to look at Ilsa once again, or more specifically to look at her hungry red eyes.

"Uh-oh," Emmett said loudly.

"This could be bad," Jasper said quietly to Alice.

"I take it that Charlie's human," Ilsa said and was answered with nods from everyone, "And off the menu?" She was only half joking.

"He's my dad," Bella snapped, not appreciating the joke.

"Ah. Definitely off the menu then," Ilsa said almost to herself.

"If you wish to feed off of a human we ask that you hunt as far away from Forks as possible," Carlisle said after clearing his throat loudly. Ilsa turned to him and nodded in understanding. "Ideally, of course, we'd prefer for you to hunt animals with us but we don't force anyone to join our ways."

"Animals?" Ilsa mused the idea over in her head, humming to herself and biting on her thumbnail. Alice grinned, knowing the answer she was going to give, "I think I'd like to give that a go."

"Yes!" Alice screamed in excitement, "Come on Jasper! We're taking her hunting with us!" The pixie like vampire grabbed her husband's hand before grabbing Ilsa's with her other hand and rushing down the stairs. "I just saw a vision of us three on a hunt and it was no cool, you're going to be such a natural it's ridiculous. And I got another one of Clara taking down a bear, all by herself, a bear!"

"That doesn't surprise me. I think I'll stick to something small," Ilsa laughed.

"How about a deer?" Jasper suggested.

"A deer? You want me to kill bambi?" Ilsa asked, horrified.

"Bambi?" Jasper asked confused as the three left the house, everyone still able to hear their conversation of course.

"You can't tell me you've never seen Bambi."

"No."

"Oh dear. Don't you watch Disney movies? They're American! Like you!"

"Never had call to."

"Alice…"

"Don't worry, we'll make him watch it. Later. Right now we hunt."

~ * ~ * ~

"I'm hungry," Clara complained for the thirty-third time, Thomas had been counting. Daniel and Cossette sighed together on the back seat, both currently curled against each other reading a book each. Cossettes was in French, Daniels in German, which he had learnt from Ilsa many years ago. "Can't we stop for just a little snack?"

"No," Daniel answered without looking up from his book.

"But I'm really hungry!" Clara actually stamped her foot on the floor of the moving car. Thomas' eyebrow raised as he indicated, pulled out, overtook the car going ridiculously slowly, indicated, pulled back in and continued speeding on down the road slightly faster than he probably should have been.

"Tough!" Daniel snapped, finally looked at her as she twisted round in her seat and glared back at him, "We aren't stopping for anything other than petrol-"

"Diesel," Thomas corrected automatically.

"-diesel until we get there. Now stop acting like a three year old!" Daniel snapped at her. Clara let out an angry shout, slumped back into her seat with her arms folded over her chest and glared at the car in front of them.

"I've got a flask if you want one of my cocktails," Thomas offered her quietly.

"Is it warm?" Clara asked him.

"No."

"Then I don't want it. I want warm blood. Not a cold blood cocktail," her gaze stayed on the car in front until it turned off and even then she followed it so that she was then looking out the side window at the world passing them by.

An hour later Thomas pulled into a petrol station and slipped out to fill the tank full with Diesel for the fifth time so far. Driving across America took a lot of fuel it seemed but it wasn't like they were going to run out of cash, they'd saved up quite a bit over the years. Cossette and Daniel went into the little shop to buy a couple of magazines and some chocolate for Thomas. It was then, when everyone else's attention was diverted, that Clara made her move.

"Where's Clara?" Cossette asked when she and Daniel returned to the car, just as Thomas was placing the nozzle back in the holder.

"What?" he asked quickly, ducking to look in through the window. "Shit."

"When I find her, I'm going to kill her," Daniel promised, "Thomas, drive down the street and find somewhere to park up. Cossette and I will find her. Oh and here, enjoy your chocolate." They'd discovered long ago that while they couldn't taste anything other than blood Thomas could and he loved a good cup of tea and some chocolate just as much as he loved blood. He couldn't survive on them however and ate out of pleasure. He didn't touch the chocolate bar now though, just parked on the side of the road, climbed out the car and scanned the busy pavement for his little sister. His stupid and deeply in trouble little sister.

"Never run off from us again!" he heard Daniel shout angrily before he saw them, coming out of the woods behind one of the houses. People stopped to stare as he practically threw Clara into the front seat, Clara whose eyes practically glowed red from the fresh blood she'd just eaten. The three adults climbed in and Thomas pulled the car away from the curb carefully. "Clara, you are grounded until I say otherwise."

"Grounded?" Clara laughed.

"Yes grounded. You'll be with me. 24 hours a day. 7 days a week. No dancing. No singing. No music. No TV. Nothing. Until I think you've earned it back," Daniel said calmly.

"What!" Clara turned around as she shouted angrily, "You can't do that!"

"Yes I can and yes I will," Daniel said, reaching forwards to snatch her Ipod from her, "And it starts now. You disobeyed me. You could have been seen. You could have been caught. Now you will suffer the consequences of your actions."

"That's not fair!" Clara screamed at him.

"That's life."

"I hate you!"

They journeyed in silence from then on.

~ * ~ * ~

"Here bambi, bambi, bambi…" Ilsa called out softly making her two companions chuckle beside her. Sniffing the air she found nothing, "Bambi hasn't come out to play today."

"You're being too loud. They know your coming," Jasper explained in a whisper, "If your quiet you will catch a scent and then the fun begins. They run on instinct, they try to get away and it's fun to catch them, to outwit them."

"As fun as hunting a human?" Ilsa asked.

"No. A different sort of fun," Jasper answered before putting a finger to his lips. "Wait." So Ilsa waited. And then a scent filled her senses. Jasper smiled beside her and gestured for her to go. She took off at a run, following the scent, avoiding trees as easily as if she were in an empty clearing. Finally her prey came into her sights, a large doe.

'Bambi's mum' she thought to herself. The doe started to run and Ilsa grinned, loving the chase as the animal erratically turned, jumping fallen logs and dodging trees. It was almost too easy to circle round and knock the doe down from the side.

"Find the jugular," Alice was suddenly at her side, helping hold the struggling deer down on the damp ground. Ilsa leaned down and sniffed, searching for the place where the scent of blood was the strongest. Her mouth watered as she found it. She bit down and flinched at the fur but then the blood started to flow down her throat. "Welcome to vegetarian side."

~ * ~ * ~

"You should have seen her, she's a natural," Alice said almost proudly as the three hunters returned to the house once Charlie had been and gone, "Once she shut up and stopped scaring them away that is." Emmett laughed loudly.

"So what did you think of the taste?" Esme asked in her friendly way, taking Ilsa's arm and leading her to one of the comfortable sofas, sitting with her.

"It was…different," Ilsa admitted as everyone else sat in the other comfortable seats, Alice curling up on Jaspers lap as there weren't enough seats. Not that she minded of course, any excuse to curl up with her husband was a good thing.

"Good different or bad different?" she asked, her head resting on Jasper's strong shoulder as his arms snaked around her thin waist.

"I don't know. I haven't decided yet," Ilsa answered honestly. Her phone rang.

"It's Thomas," Alice said as Ilsa struggled to get it out of her pocket.

"Hello?" Ilsa asked.

"Hi Ilsa. Were just passing through some place called Denver, thought I'd give you a call. See how things were going at your end?" Thomas' cheerful voice asked.

"It's going good. I've just been on my first vegetarian hunt," Ilsa answered.

"Oh."

"Don't knock it till you've tried it Tommy," Ilsa laughed, causing the Cullens to smile at her, "It was quite fun hunting a deer actually. They're less predictable than a human. I did have to get past the whole 'I'm Killing Bambi' thing. That much than getting past the 'I'm killing a human being thing', I feel more sorry for Bambi. Little deer, minding it's own business, not doing anything wrong or illegal or stupid…and we kill it," Ilsa laughed into the phone.

"Ilsa, you are one of a kind," Thomas laughed with her, "I'd have thought you would have found it harder to kill a human than a deer."

"But it was Bambi! Or technically it was Bambi's mum but still, Bambi!" Ilsa defended herself.

"Bet it tasted awful," Thomas muttered. Now of course with their super hearing the Cullens could hear every word he was saying to his sister. They could also hear it in his voice that whatever she said about the taste he wouldn't believe her.

"Actually it wasn't that bad," Ilsa answered.

"Yeah, right. Anyway must go," Thomas said quickly.

"Can't I talk to Clara?" Ilsa asked with a frown.

"She's grounded," Thomas explained with a chuckle.

"Grounded?" Ilsa laughed.

"No music. No dancing. No television. No free time. And now apparently no phone," Thomas explained further.

"What did she do?" Ilsa asked in shock.

"Disobeyed Daniel big time. We stopped for diesel and she slipped out of the car and went hunting in the woods behind someone's house. She'd been told no snacks until we reached Cutl-Forks. I must call it Forks," they all heard a girls voice giggling in the background, "So now she's grounded."

"How many did she kill?" Ilsa asked.

"I don't know."

"The family," the girls voice said quietly and they could all imagine her shrugging, "They were having a picnic."

"Clara, don't make it worse for yourself," Thomas snapped to the voice.

"I think the Cullens are going to be good for her," Ilsa muttered.

"Humph," Thomas made a noise that could be taken as either an agreement or disagreement. "So going now. See you in a while."

"Have a nice drive," Ilsa said pleasantly as her brother hung up on her.

"Is Clara always so…" Rosalie couldn't find the right word.

"Spoilt? Yeah. We've been trying to cure that for years. She does have her good moments," Ilsa answered with a smile, "She can be nice, very nice. And compassionate. She does however like the hunt and she likes to play with her food."

"Ew," Bella gasped.

"That's just her nature. Like I said, you lot are going to be good for her," Ilsa was still smiling around at the family, some of whom smiled back. Alice nodded in agreement with Ilsa, she'd probably seen it. "Sooooo, now what do we do?"

"We could go shopping," Alice suggested eagerly.

"What for?" Ilsa asked with a frown.

"Please tell me your not another one that doesn't like shopping," Alice practically begged, shooting a quick glance at Bella who looked away quickly.

"Depends on what I'm buying I guess," Ilsa answered slowly.

"What about clothes? Alice asked.

"I hate clothes shopping," Ilsa said instantly.

"But why? Clothes shopping is wonderful!" Alice cried out happily.

"Not when you're as skinny as me," Ilsa muttered.

"But you could look so good in some of the current fashions," Alice said eagerly, looking to Rosalie for agreement. She got none. Rosalie was being her usual friendly self. Alice glared at her.

"No Alice, I'd look unhealthy," Ilsa corrected.

"Not in what I'd pick out for you, you'd look hot," Alice promised, "Please? It gives us something to do while we wait for them. And its fun. We could all go, the girls. For a girly day of shopping."

"Alice…" Bella began. Alice's look shut her up, "Sounds great."

"Please Ilsa?" Alice begged.

"Alright. But if I feel uncomfortable I'm coming straight back here," Ilsa warned the other girl. Alice gave a cheer of happiness and raced upstairs to get her credit cards and to change for their shopping trip. "What have I just agreed to?"

"Torture," practically everyone in the room answered.

A/N I promise that the others will arrive in the next chapter. It's called 'The Arrival'.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer. I do own my own creations however.

**Summary**: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi's radar, for staying away. This is their story.

**Warning**: Violence and slash (later on). You no likey, you no ready. Kay?

**A/N** The first five chapters are completely about the OC's I have created but have no fear, our favourite vampires and werewolves will be in this story!

**Where Loyalties Lie.**

**Chapter Nine: The Arrival. **

Ilsa groaned as Alice added yet another thing to the basket the German girl was carrying, the fourteenth thing to go into it. This time it was a t-shirt that Ilsa would not be trying on; short sleeved and striped, two big no-nos in her wardrobe. They'd arrived in Port Angeles an hour ago and in that hour Ilsa had been dragged around five different clothes shops, had tried on dozens and dozens of clothes, hating most of them. Alice also bought most of them despite Ilsa's protestations.

"Come on then Ilsa! Time to try them on!" Alice said eagerly, dragging the unexcited girl over to the fitting room.

"Alice…"

"No more arguments! Here, try these jeans, this top," Alice ordered as she pulled the items she meant to the top of the basket and pushed both it and Ilsa into the first free cubicle. Ilsa sighed and pushed the door shut, she definitely wanted her privacy. She's only just undone the first button of her blouse when Alice asked, "So?"

"I haven't got changed yet Alice! I'm not that fast!" Ilsa shouted through the door as she unbuttoned the rest and shrugged the loose garment off. Reluctantly she pulled on the tight black t-shirt, long sleeved thankfully with white stars printed on it, starting small on her left shoulder and getting bigger as they went down across her chest. Changing her trousers she glared at her disgustingly bony knees, clearly visible in the ridiculously tight jeans. "I look horrible," Ilsa said loudly as she looked at herself in the changing rooms mirror, actually wincing and closing her eyes tightly.

"Open the door," Alice ordered. Reluctantly Ilsa obeyed, knowing that Alice would only break the lock on the door if she didn't. And that would take way too much explaining.

"It doesn't look good," Ilsa mumbled, "I look unhealthy. I look dead!" Both girls smiled softly as they almost shared the same thought, 'I/You am/are dead.'

"What are you talking about?" Alice finally asked, "You look great! Girls everywhere are dying for their stomachs to look that flat!" Only after she'd said did she realise that it probably wasn't the best thing to say to an anorexic vampire,

"Nice choice of words Alice," Ilsa muttered, "Yes they're dying, of anorexia!" Ilsa turned her back on the other vampire, "Get out! I'm changing back!"

"Baggy stuff just makes you look thinner you know," Alice pointed out as she stepped back, allowing Ilsa to shut the door and practically rip the clothes off of her body, shoving them back into the basket.

"Don't care! And by the way we won't be buying those! Or any of the other stuff from this store!" Ilsa snapped through the door.

"Oh yes we are, we're getting all of it," Alice snapped back.

"Alice!" Ilsa actually shouted her name making the other women in the fitting room jump, "I don't want them. We've got enough already! I don't want stuff that is going to make me look any more unhealthy than I already do so please just leave it!" She flung open the door and stormed out of the store, leaving the basket behind.

"Anorexic," Alice heard the shop assistant mutter in that tone that made her extremely angry. She grabbed the basket and then turned on the poor shop assistant,

"She's a recovering anorexic that needs support not condemnation from people like you. I'll take all of these. Now!" Alice snapped at the girl who, blushing a deep red, hurried to obey.

Once all the clothes were purchased and bagged Alice carried them and all of the others they'd acquired over the shopping trip and went in search of Ilsa. Following the strong scent of the only other vampire around she soon found her in a bookshop, browsing the shelves.

"You bought them," she said disapprovingly.

"I did. See anything you like?" Alice asked.

"Maybe. But if I do find something I like I'll pay for it myself. You've spent enough money on me today Alice. And there will be no more clothes shocking, I'm sick of people looking at me that way," Ilsa grumbled, pulling a large book from the shelf and flicking through it. "That would do good for Thomas." She kept it in the crook of her arm.

"No more clothes shop," Alice agreed, "But what about shoe shops? We've got all these great outfits, now we have to get the great shoes to match!" Ilsa groaned as if she was in pain. "Please?"

"Fine. But only two shoe shops and no more than five pairs of shoes!" Ilsa bartered as she pulled out another book, flicking threw it with a frown.

"Ten pairs," Alice countered.

"Six."

"Nine."

"Seven and that's my final offer," Ilsa said with a small smile, actually finding herself enjoying this moment of shopping.

"Seven. Now I'm going to look in the fashion section," Alice said happily, navigating the bookshelves with her arms full of bags. She hit three other people in the store. In the end Alice bought a really expensive book on fashion through the ages and Ilsa bought two history books for Thomas and three romantic novels for herself.

Then came the shoe shops.

~ * ~ * ~

"I think I now currently own more than I have ever own before and I don't mean at one time, I mean over all!" Ilsa grumbled as she entered the Cullen house, "She bought everything! And she nought nine pairs of shoes!"

"Huh?" Emmett asked confused.

"We agreed on seven pairs. She bought nine!" Ilsa pointed out of the door and they all watched Alice enter with her arms full of the large bags. Jasper immediately went to help his wife even though she didn't need it. The two disappeared upstairs.

"She does that," Bella agreed. "Now she'll get it all put away and then you'll become her Barbie doll. Trust me, happens to me all the time. Did she stick to practical or do you have as many floor length gowns as me?"

"Why on Earth would I need a gown?" Ilsa asked with a frown.

"Weddings, parties, movie premieres," Rosalie listed a few examples calmly.

"Huh," Ilsa laughed softly, "Not my sort of thing."

"Not ever weddings?" Esme asked. Every woman on the planet loved a good wedding and vampire weddings were even better. Their guest shook her head,

"Only one and I was six at the time, dressed in a stiff blue dress that I couldn't move in and the whole thing seemed like it was never going to end." Ilsa grimaced at the memory causing the others to laugh.

"Parties then. You must like parties," Rosalie suggested.

"I've only ever been to a few when I was a little girl and spent most of them hiding under the tables. Since becoming a vampire the only parties I've gone too are Clara's birthday parties and just so you know she celebrates both her birth and her death, and then it was just the five of us," Ilsa answered with a shrug. "And before you ask I have never been to a film premiere."

"Ilsa!" Alice was suddenly back, arms empty now.

"Good luck," Bella said softly to Ilsa as Alice ran up to her, clapping with excitement as she practically squealed,

"Come on, let's get you out of those things and into some of your new stuff!"

Ilsa couldn't stop herself being pulled towards the stairs by Alice then, the other vampires grip on her arm as tight as a metal vice. She shot a pleading look to Bella but there was nothing the relatively new vampire could do to help her. Alice was a force of nature all of her own.

Ilsa spent the next seven hours being dressed by Alice in various outfits. Her hair was done in so many different styles she lost count and Alice wasn't surprised to find out it was a wig, she'd seen it. Ilsa still wouldn't let her remove it. Jasper had fled early on and Ilsa really couldn't blame him. Eventually Alice was satisfied that Ilsa was dressed how she should be for the first time the Cullens saw her in her new style. Ilsa didn't agree but had little choice.

Her long hair had been put up in to a messy bun, preventing her from using the long strand to hide her face. She was dressed in all in grey and if she weren't so worried about how skinny the clothes made her looked she would have liked them. The top had no sleeves at and that seriously worried her, her scar was in plain view. It was light grey and made of this floaty fabric that had been sewn in such a way the front looked all rippled and bunched while the back was perfectly flat. It had a polo neck collar, hiding her throat entirely and a sort of belt was attacked to the top, showing of her ridiculously narrow waist. The trousers were the same colour grey but a much heavier material, smart creases all the way down the front. They were also too long, or at least they were too long until Alice forced her into her newly bought high heels, also grey. It was sexy and smart.

"You planned for this outfit, everything matches," Ilsa accused once Alice declared her ready, "Even the shoes."

"Well yeah, I saw it," Alice shrugged.

"So why the seven hours of dressing up if you knew what I was going to be wearing?" Ilsa demanded a little angrily.

"It was fun," Alice giggled. 'Edward. Everyone in the family room please.'

"For you," Ilsa glared at her as the shorter girl took hold of her hand and lead her down into the family room when everyone was waiting much to Ilsa's annoyance.

"Everyone, meet the new Ilsa," Alice said, stepping back as everyone admired the girl standing nervously before them. A few eyes widened. The transformation was…amazing. Gone was the little girl in baggy clothes, this was a young woman who looked incredibly sexy.

"Wow," Bella murmured, "Alice, you have a gift."

"I know. Doesn't she look fabulous?" Alice clapped happily.

"Pretty," Renesmee said from where she sat on Jacob's lap, the shape-shifter staring at Ilsa with as much fascination as the others. Rosalie looked Ilsa up and down blatantly, her eyes finishing on the black numbers on Ilsa's skin. She didn't say anything but Edward heard her shocked thoughts and his eyes too found the tattoo. By now Ilsa's hand was moving up her other arm until her hand covered it. The move didn't go un-noticed.

"I feel stupid," Ilsa said quietly.

"But you look amazing. You're family won't know what to make of you when thy get here," Alice said confidently. Well she would know.

~ * ~ * ~

TWO DAYS LATER

They all heard the car pull up the drive and Alice nodded in un-needed confirmation. Carlisle rose from where he'd been sat beside his wife as they all watched the movie on the television screen. He went to the door and opened it as the doors of the car were thrown open, four figures climbing out. Three of the familiar figures sparkled in the sunlight. The driver did not.

"Hello Daniel, Cossette," he called out to the French couple.

"It is good to see you again Carlisle," Cossette said pleasantly as she walked up to him, kissing him on both cheeks. Daniel nodded to the other vampire as he and Thomas went to the now open boot of the car to get all of their suitcases. Clara followed Cossette up the steps to the Doctor. "So this is your house. I must say your description does not do it justice. It is beautiful."

"Please come in," Carlisle said politely, holding the door open so that both of them could step inside. Daniel and Thomas, both carrying two huge suitcases each followed, setting them down just inside the door as Carlisle shut it.

"Wow!" Clara gasped. She'd just seen Ilsa, now standing facing the door and still dressed in the grey outfit. "What happened to you?"

"She did," Ilsa pointed to Alice who laughed and waved at Clara.

"Oh dear, you're watching the television," Daniel said sadly. Clara's smile fell instantly; replaced by the sulkiest look any of them had ever seen. Esme moved quickly and paused the DVD they had been watching and turned the television itself off, making the screen blank, "Thank you. I guess Ilsa told you that Clara is grounded for her behaviour."

"Yes she did," Esme answered, "It's good to see you again Daniel."

"It'd a pleasure to see you too Esme," Daniel smiled at the motherly woman as she walked over to him. He bent and kissed both of her cheeks. Esme was then hugged by Cossette while Daniel shook Carlisle hand, it was like they were old friends instead of relatively new ones.

"Your house is beautiful," Cossette said to Esme.

"Thank you," Esme sounded as pleased as she looked. She was proud of her house, she'd put a lot of work into it, "Let us introduce you to our children."

"But you told us so much about them, I think we could guess who is who," Cossette laughed pleasantly, the sound like a tinkling chime. "However first I would like to thank whoever it was that got Ilsa out of those horrible clothes, Clara and I have been trying for years."

"Me," Alice said proudly.

"You must be Alice," Cossette said. Alice nodded, "You must tell me your secret, like I said we've been trying for years."

"No secret Cossette, she just wouldn't let me say no," Ilsa said with a small laugh, "If I could bruise I'd say I have the bruises to prove it." Thomas chuckled loudly and Ilsa was at his side in an instant, punching his arm. He actually winced and rubbed the spot, making some of the Cullens frown. "Don't laugh at me."

"I'm not. I was laughing at your joke," he pointed out, "You look good."

"Thank you," Ilsa smiled shyly at him.

"So are we playing guess the Cullens?" Thomas asked Cossette, "If we are, that big one must be Emmett. All brawn and no brain" Emmett made and indignant sound and Rosalie growled at Thomas, "And the blonde with him must Rosalie."

"Just like always, making friends," Ilsa said sarcastically to him, "They're nice, so be nice." She said this slowly to him.

"I am being nice," Thomas claimed.

"All brawn and no brain isn't being nice," Ilsa told him.

"That one's Bella," Clara pointed to the correct Cullen, "I like her hair."

"Thank you," Bella said quietly, "I like yours." Clara beamed at her and Bella got the feeling she'd just become friends with the young looking vampire with that simple compliment.

"I guess that makes you Edward," Daniel said to the vampire who had his arm around his wife, 'Carlisle says you can read minds. Is this true?'

"Yes it's true," Edward answered the thought.

"Fascinating," Daniel sounded truly intrigued.

"Is that your daughter?" Cossette asked, seeing Renesmee with Jacob for the first time, "The little girl all the fuss was about."

"That'd be Renesmee," Bella nodded. Renesmee hopped down off Jacob's lap and tottered over to Cossette who knelt to be eye level with her.

"Hello Renesmee," Cossette said as the little girl reached her.

"Hello," Renesmee said before putting her hand on Cossette's cheek and showing her everything that had happened since Ilsa had arrived. From the image's Cossette understood that Renesmee liked Ilsa but was worried about her secrets.

"You are quite a child aren't you?" Cossette asked once the hand was pulled back, "And don't worry about Ilsa."

"Worry?" Ilsa asked, "Why is she worried about me?"

"She's worried because of all the secret's you're keeping," Cossette answered.

"Oh," Ilsa looked away quickly. Renesmee slipped her arms around Cossettes neck in a hug and commanded,

"Up." Chuckling Cossette obeyed, lifting Renesmee in her arms. Bella looked on proudly as Renesmee won over yet another immortal heart.

"I can't believe they wanted to kill her," Cossette said with a soft shake of her head, "But then again they are the Volturi and that is what they do."

"We've named everyone else, we might as well name you. The last Cullen," Thomas said, looking at Jasper, "By process of elimination you are Jasper."

"I am," Jasper answered, "And you need not fear us."

"I'm not afraid of you," Thomas said.

"I can feel it," Jasper said calmly.

"I'm not afraid of you. I'm afraid of the Volturi and I'm not ashamed to admit that," Thomas explained. Jasper nodded, feeling the rising anger and deciding not to push further. "Now if it's alright I need to sit down." Suddenly he sounded tired.

"When was the last time you fed?" Ilsa asked worriedly as she moved with him to one of the couches that had been emptied when the Cullens had stood, mostly when they had been identified by the Gilberts.

"Before you left."

"When wads the last you ate?" Ilsa asked.

"Isn't that the same thing?" Emmett asked.

"With him? No. Tommy?" Ilsa asked.

"Before we left," Thomas answered, rubbing at his eyes.

"When was the last time you slept?" Ilsa asked.

"Slept?" Jasper asked in surprise.

"Before we left," Thomas answered.

"Sleep. Now," Ilsa ordered, all but pushing Thomas so that he lay down on the couch, his legs curled up and his head resting on the arm rest.

"Huh?" Bella asked, "I thought vampire's don't need sleep?"

"He's special, just like you and your husband and your daughter are. Just like those two are. Just like I am," Ilsa answered with a shrug, "Only his gift isn't so good in a fight. He's practically human in every way."

"He just kills humans," Clara said cheerfully, skipping over to sit by Thomas's feet, "And lives off blood." She leaned over him and poked his arm. Ilsa grabbed her hand tightly. "I was just checking that he's gone to sleep."

"You don't need to poke him to do that," Ilsa snapped.

"No, but it's fun," Clara pointed out, "I'm hungry. Can we go hunting?"

"We could go get some deer," Ilsa offered.

"Deer? Yuck!" Clara said loudly, "I don't want a deer! I fancy a middle-aged man. Caucasian. Maybe with a little Irish in his family." She spoke as if she were speaking of a meal on a menu. The Cullens stared at her horrified. "I'm joking. I'm not that fussy." No one laughed. "Tough crowd."

"Vegetarians," Ilsa said as a reminder to her sister.

"Oh yeah, funky eyes," she peered closely into Jaspers eyes, "Weird."

"Clara, be nice a respect their way of living or you'll be grounded even longer," Daniel said calmly from where he stood with Carlisle.

"There isn't a time at the moment," Clara snapped angrily at him.  
"No, but it can still get longer," Daniel pointed out to her. Clara huffed and folded her arms over her chest, staring at the blank TV screen angrily. Renesmee wriggled in Cossette's arms and the French vampire put her down easily. The little girl, still growing fast, moved to stand in front of the vampire lying on the couch. Then to everyone's utter amazement she climbed onto the couch with him, wriggled herself into his arms and closed her eyes. She was asleep in moments.

"Oooooook," Ilsa said slowly, looking to Edward and Bell who looked just as surprised as she did, "She do that often?"

"Only with Jacob," Bella nodded to the shape-shifter who looked like he wanted to snatch the little girl away from the vampire she'd just snuggled up to.

"Interesting," was heard from Carlisle. All eyes turned to him, "There must be something about Thomas that she likes and trusts. We'll have to wait until they wake to find out what." He turned to Cossette and Daniel when he next spoke, "While you are with us I would prefer it if you hunted as far away as you can. We don't need any more complications."

"My wife and I thought we might give your diet a try," Daniel said with a smile. Clara spun around with a gasp,

"What?!" she asked.

"You don't have to. It's your own choice what you eat," Daniel told her, "But if you do insist on eating humans you'll have to be accompanied on your hunts. No repeats of earlier."

"Thomas wont eat animals wither, I'll hunt with him," Clara said a little haughtily. Everyone was reminded a little bit of Rosalie when she got in one of her moods only Rosalie wasn't nearly as spoilt as Clara acted.

"Don't be so sure about that," of course it was Alice that spoke, "Surprises are on the way." Her eyes twinkled wickedly as she said nothing more than that leaving everyone else to wonder what they future held for them all.

A/N Few, I wrote almost all of that in one go and now my fingers hurt from typing so much. I hate creative spiels, my typing can never keep up with my mind. Tell me what you think, you few who are following this story.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer. I do own my own creations however.

**Summary**: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi's radar, for staying away. This is their story.

**Warning**: Violence and slash (later on). You no likey, you no ready. Kay?

**A/N** The first five chapters are completely about the OC's I have created but have no fear, our favourite vampires and werewolves will be in this story!

**Where Loyalties Lie.**

**Chapter Ten: Home Movies.**

"So when was the last time you all fed?" Carlisle asked after a moment spent watching Thomas sleep. Daniel's almost completely black eyes turned his way.

"We three?" he asked, gesturing to himself, Cossette and Thomas, "Almost a week. We'll be fine, even with the smell of those delicious humans in town. We're quite good at resisting, at waiting for the opportune moment. Her?" He pointed a finger at Clara who looked down at her feet a little guiltily, "She fed two days ago. Don't worry, when she wants to she can resist. But she can also be as stubborn as a mule when it comes to something she wants." Clara looked up indignantly at that but then winced, agreeing silently with what he said. When she wanted something no rules would stop her from getting it.

"Well…would you two like to come hunting with my wife and I?" Carlisle offered with a smile, "We were going to go hunting anyway and this way you can see and experience our way of life for yourselves. The others will be perfectly alright here." Alice nodded along as he spoke.

"We'd love to," Cossette said warmly.

"Before you go," Alice's voice stopped them before they could leave by the front door, "Can we have permission for Clara to watch a little television with us?" Daniel looked from the dark haired vampire, grinning brightly as she already knew his answer and the hopeful looking Clara. Finally he nodded. "Thank you!" She hugged the startled vampire and then rushed over to Clara as the four 'adults' left, "It's time."

"Time?" Clara and pretty much everyone else asked in confusion.

"Time to watch the film," Alice explained with a huge smile.

"Huh?" Clara asked with a frown.

"Your film," Alice explained a little slower, "You know the one I mean."

"Oh! How'd you know about that?" Clara asked, sounding a little suspicious. Emmett laughed deeply and she glared at him. Ilsa took pity on Clara and reminded her little sister,

"Alice can see glimpses of the future, remember?"

"Oh yeah!" Clara gasped, feeling a little foolish. Carlisle and Esme had told them all about them when they had visited.

"But Clara? What film does she mean? It had better not be the one I'm thinking of," Ilsa said slowly, making Clara meet her eyes, "You know the one I mean. The one that you made without our permission. The one that had Daniel so mad we worried he'd dismember you."

"It's not that one," Clara said shortly, "And I still don't see what all the fuss was about. It was just a bit of fun."

"Fun?" Ilsa asked incredulously, "You secretly filmed us on hunts and when we were feeding and turned it into a music video." All the Cullens stared at the little girl in shock as Ilsa said this, Edward a little before the others as he heard Ilsa's thoughts, "It was disgusting. It was wrong!"

"It was good," Clara pointed out, "And my dance was brilliant."

"Your dance was the only bit of it that wasn't about killing humans!" Ilsa snapped at her, "If you ignore the fact that you were dancing in blood of course."

"That sounds…horrible," Bella said quietly.

"It wasn't horrible or disgusting," she glared at them, "It was art."

"Like hell it was art!" Ilsa snapped.

"What's this one Alice has seen us watching about?" Rosalie of all people asked before the fight could get any worse. Clara ran over to her suitcase, lifting it easily to lay it on it's side and open it. As she started searching the girly contents for the home made DVD she spoke quickly,

"I made a video about us and our life in England. I started it when we decided to come here. I thought they'd like to see what we are like when we're at home. Got it!" She hurried back over, handing the little DVD to Alice who put it into the DVD player quickly, "I used old footage and photo's. Don't worry; I didn't use any footage from 'Façade'. It's mostly pictures." The second to last thing was said specifically to Ilsa who glared at Clara once again.

"What's 'Façade'?" Emmett asked.

"That other video," Ilsa said coldly, "It's the name of the first song she used."

"Oh," Emmett said, wincing as Rosalie smacked him for bringing the subject back to the one she'd managed to get them to drop.

"It'll be lovely seeing what you're life in England's like," Bella said gently. "It must be quite different to our life here." Clara nodded, eagerly sitting beside Rosalie who she thought to be more beautiful than anyone else in the entire world.

"Everyone get comfy, it's starting."

~ * ~ * ~

(Right this is a little un-orthodox but hopefully if you follow this link/type in this address you'll find a youtube video called 'The Gilbert Family - My Twilight Fic'.

.com/watch?v=xuWJ7N6vXuo

If they decide to delete it or it doesn't work this is the script of the video and just imagine that there are pictures and videos to go along with it.)

Hello.

I'm Clara Gilbert and this is a video…well more a slideshow really about my family.

We've lived in Bournemouth since just after World War Two.

Of course we have to move a lot just like you, people get a bit suspicious of you when you don't age. They're always suspicious anyway about the 'no sun' thing. I bet no one really believes our lie, allergic to sunlight and all that.

Sorry, rambling.

So these are a few pictures of some of the many houses we've lived in.

This one was my favourite. 1984-87. It rocked!

Now this is our current house. We've been there a year and a half now.

Isn't it nice?

Well I like it.

So anyway that's the house.

Now onto us.

This is Cossette, my vampire mother.

Doesn't she look amazing?

And then this is Daniel, my vampire father.

See that look? That's his strict look.

I get that a lot.

Ooh this one I found in their room he he. I bet it's Cossettes favourite.

Ok so, Thomas is my older brother.

He's a weird vampire, he doesn't glow!

And he eats and he sleeps and he does all the annoying human things that I kinda want to be able to do too.

Not glowing meant he could like go outside and which meant he could fight in the wars.

He doesn't know I found his war albums.

But I did.

They make him sad sometimes.

He must be in this one somewhere but I can't find him.

This is my favourite of Thomas.

Now Ilsa is my sister and she may not look it but she is the younger one.

Ilsa doesn't like cameras but I'm very sneaky.

These are the ones that turned out alright, the rest were a bit blurry.

Now me!

When Cossette and Daniel found me my house had just been bombed.

They saved me.

We managed to save these snapshots from when I was little…well littler.

That's my human family.

I wanted to be a ballerina and since dying I've kinda kept it up.

It's easier now I don't get blisters and stuff like that.

You don't wanna know that.

Now this is the only photo of me learning to dance as a human.

I was the best in my class.

And this was my first and sadly only role as Cinderella.

I cut it out from the programme.

The rest of these are later, once I was vampire.

These are my favourite point shoes, they're baby pink.

Oh and this, this is my dream tutu.

And before any of you say it I know I look like Shirley Temple.

That's it, or rather that's us.

I've got more video's should any of you want to watch them.

Lot's of me dancing actually.

Well, bye!

~ * ~ * ~

"Hello Shirley," Emmett laughed, looking at Clara as the DVD ended. Clara growled, her head turning ever so slowly to glare at him with her red eyes. "Never saw you do that face before. How about a rendition of the 'Good Ship Lollipop' for old times sake?" Emmett roared with laughter once again. The growl was repeated.

"Um Emmett, don't call her Shirley or provoke her," Ilsa said quietly to her new friend, watching her little sister with wary eyes, "Or she might rip something off that you quite like having." She nodded to his crotch and Emmett's laughter stopped in an instance, wincing along with every other guy in the room.

"Quickly changing the subject before Emmett puts his big foot in it…Clara, that video was great and I see us watching many more of your movies and I see us making some of our own. Oh it's going to be such fun!" Alice clapped happily.

"It's always fun making videos!" Clara giggled happily. "We could start with making one for each of you on your stories. I've done all of ours."

"You have?" Ilsa asked suspiciously, "I don't remember agreeing to that."

"That would be because I didn't ask you," Clara said slowly, "They're like mini-documentaries. I did mine first and then Cossette's and then Daniels and then Thomas' and I didn't want to leave you out so I did it without you knowing."

"Clara."

"I'm sorry but it's really good. Thomas helped me with the final edit and he cried all the way through it," Clara said defensively.

"And that makes it good?" Jasper asked with the frown.

"It means it's serious. It doesn't make light of the story," Clara explained sounding much older than she looked, sounding her age, "I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't going to be taken seriously. The story…your story doesn't deserve that."

"Alright Clara, I forgive you," Ilsa said, "But let me know next time."

"Promise," Clara put a hand over her heart as she nodded. Then suddenly she jumped up and rushed to her suitcase, rooting around and pulling out a Dictaphone. "So? Who wants to go first? I'll get your stories recorded on this and then I'll start work once I'm ungrounded."

"Er…" everyone mumbled awkwardly.

"I will," Alice volunteered quickly, "Mines the easiest to make."

"Ok. Tell me all about it," Clara smiled at the bigger vampire, clicking record on the Dictaphone. And so Alice told her story with as much detail as she knew. She started with waking up alone, a vampire. She described her first ever vision, of Jasper's smile. Of her second vision, the Cullens way of life. And of her long and often difficult quest to find both. And of course, a huge chuck of her story was about her love of Jasper. "You've never tasted human blood?" Clara asked when the story was over. Alice shook her head. "Not ever?"

"No."

"That's…weird," Clara said softly making everyone laugh.

"I'll take that as a compliment. Emmett, you should go next."

"Why not Jasper?" Emmett asked, pointing out the natural link from Alice's own story. It would make sense for her husbands story to be told next,

"His story isn't told now. Later," Alice answered calmly, a knowing look in her eyes, "Neither is Ilsa's or Rosalie's but everyone else gets a turn. And I've seen you going next so talk."

"Fine," Emmett grumbled slightly about being put on the spot but once he go into telling his story he was soon back to his usual self, filling the tale with rude jokes and innuendo's. Only once did Rose look uncomfortable even though he pretty much told them all about their sex life, she took the rest of it in her stride. He finished with a basic summary and proudly declaring that he was the happiest man on the world because he'd been found by Rosalie and she loved him back. Clara looked thoughtful,

"So basically what your saying is that your entire existence revolves around sex, the having of and the talking of," she said at length.

"Clara!" Ilsa gasped as Emmett roared with laughter.

"No Shirl-" he caught himself before he gave her cause to castrate him, "No my existence revolves around the woman I love. Rosalie Hale. And I plan on keeping it that way." A wicked grin slowly broke out on his face, "If great sex is involved, well that's one heck of a bonus." Clara laughed loudly before looking around expectantly for the next speaker, she really couldn't wait to be ungrounded to start on these videos, hell the research alone was going to great!

"Wait!" Alice said quickly before Edward could start to tell his story, staring at the peacefully sleeping Thomas. As they all automatically turned to see what she was expecting to see Thomas woke up. It started with a slight change in his breathing, then his shifted his shoulders, his eyes cracking open. He blinked a few times and then tried to sit up only to frown and look down at the sleeping little girl in his arms,

"Alice?" he asked sleepily.

"No, this is Alice," Edward said, pointing to his sister. The sleepy gaze moved to him, then to Alice and then back to Renesmee.

"Different Alice," he mumbled, gently moving his hand through Renesmee's hair, "But it's not that Alice either." He shook his head slightly and when he looked around them this time he looked a bit more awake. Everyone was startled by the loud sounds of a stomach rumbling in protest, "Uh oh, I need chocolate."

"On it!" Clara cried happily and then in a blink of an eye she'd opened his case and was back at his side with a huge bar of chocolate in a purple wrapper. "Here you go." He smiled his thanks at her and sat up, expertly keeping Renesmee in his arms. The little girl mumbled a bit in protest but settled again, snuggling her face into his neck. Clara opened the wrapper and broke of a huge chunk of chocolate, handing it to Thomas who whilst holding Renesmee to him with only one hand took it with the other and bit off a huge chunk.

"Ah Clara you're a life saver," he mumbled with a mouthful of the Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate, his favourite of all Chocolates.

"I know," Clara beamed happily. Everyone watched him with wide eyes as he proceeded to eat that chunk and then another chunk, envious of the fact that he was able to do something so entirely human. Well everyone except Jacob of course whose hands were itching with the desire to pull Renesmee away from him now that he was awake. "I'll get you some water."

"Actually I'm gasping for a tea," Thomas said quietly.

"Er…" Clara bit her lip.

"I'll make you one," Ilsa said with an affectionate smile.

"Thank you Ilsa," Thomas smiled up at her. The others were noticing he was much nicer now that he'd a) slept and b) eaten chocolate. "So…what are we up to?"

"We watched a video of mine and now I'm taking down their stories so I can make videos of them," Clara explained happily as Ilsa disappeared into the kitchen. They heard the tap and the then the click of a plug as the kettle was turned on.

"Not 'Façade' surely," Thomas said quickly.

"No, we've already been through this. It's 'Façade', it was the one about our lives in England," Clara said rather sulkily, "I'll only show them 'Façade' if they want to see it. I know they're vegetables."

"Vegetarians," Thomas corrected.

"Same thing," Clara snapped.

"Thought you were grounded. No TV," He nodded to the huge screen.

"Un-grounded temporarily thanks to Alice," Clara smiled at the other vampire. "Now I believe that Edward was just about to start telling us his story." She picked up the Dictaphone from where she'd dropped it earlier and clicked record, "I have a feeling this is going to get complicated."

And it really did. Ilsa returned with Thomas's cup of tea as Edward reached the point in the story with the family leaving Bella and the wolves looking after her. All three of the Gilbert children stared at him in shock but then stared at Jacob with something else, fear. It was the natural first response of a vampire to a wolf.

"They're our friends," Bella said quickly noticing their fears.

"Your friends, not ours," Thomas pointed out.

"If you are with the Cullens you are our friends," Jacob said quietly.

"And you can decide that huh?" Thomas asked.

"Yes. I'm the Alpha."

"The whoofa?" Clara asked.

"The Alpha wolf is the one in charge of the pack. Then there's the Beta and then all the others. The Alpha makes all the decision and their word is pretty law," Ilsa said knowledgably to her little sister. Clara made an 'oh' of understanding as Ilsa smiled nervously at Jacob, "Discovery channel." He chuckled and nodded. Her explanation had after all been correct.

"Good cuppa Ilsa," Thomas said softly after taking a gulp of the steaming liquid, made just he way he liked it (white with one large sugar). Edward carried on with the story then and Victoria was discussed.

"That bitch!" Clara gasped. Everyone chuckled at that.

"Yes, she was rather," Bella agreed softly, "Revenge never gets anyone anywhere." Ilsa snorted,

"I wouldn't bet on that."

"What does that mean?" Bella asked with a frown.

"Revenge can be good, very good," Ilsa shrugged, "I lived off revenge during my newborn years and even then I didn't feel like I was finished." Rosalie said nothing, after all she'd taken revenge on her 'killers'.

"I don't understand," Bella said quietly.

"Lots of people contributed to me death and the death of family. I merely killed them in return," Ilsa shrugged, "So, on with your story?" After a second of staring at the girl who had just revealed a new piece of information to them Edward continued, bringing them right up to date.

"Bella? Anything you want to add for yours or is it pretty much the same?" Clara asked, not stopping the recording just yet.

"It's pretty much the same except I would say I was bit more insistent on the turning thing and a little less agreeable on the marriage thing," Bella admitted softly, "Don't mind so much now but at the time…"

"I'd love to get married," Clara breathed sadly. A moment of silence fell before she smiled brightly, "But who's gonna marry a twelve year old vampire? Now Alice said that I wouldn't get your story Rosalie or you're Jasper so that's everybody for now. Time for best behaviour to get permanently un-grounded."

Everyone was laughing at her matter of fact way of saying it when the front door opened and the adults stepped back into the house…

A/N There we go. Hope you liked the random bit in the middle either way you did it. Let me know what you think. Next Chapter - 'Settling Down.'


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight or it's characters as I'm not the great Stephanie Meyer. I do own my own creations however.

**Summary**: This is the story of a family of vampires, not quite as good at Carlisle and his family but not evil either. They would have liked to help when Carlisle and Esme asked but they had their own reason for staying under the Volturi's radar, for staying away. This is their story.

**Warning**: Violence and slash (later on). You no likey, you no ready. Kay?

**A/N** The first five chapters are completely about the OC's I have created but have no fear, our favourite vampires and werewolves will be in this story!

**Where Loyalties Lie.**

**Chapter Eleven: Settling Down.**

"Did you enjoy your hunt?" Ilsa asked as the four adults walked over to the large group of children, all of them with brilliantly golden eyes. Now it was only Thomas and Clara who had red eyes, although Thomas's were almost entirely black his hunger for blood was so great.

"It was very enjoyable," Cossette said with a wide smile, "I tried a doe."

"Tasted a little odd," Daniel admitted quietly.

"You get used to it," Ilsa and Edward said at exactly the same moment, smiling at each other after. Thomas snorted loudly and Ilsa turned to him, "You do get used to it you know. After a while it's quite nice."

"Uh-huh," he muttered, still not believing her. He got up from his seat, swaying a little from the hunger/thirst he felt, cursing his human-ness. The others might desire to be more human but he hated it some times, like when he got light headed from lack of blood. "I'm going hunting for a different sort of blood. How far away would you like me to go?"

"Will you not even try animal blood?" Cossette asked sadly.

"No."

"He will in time," Alice said knowingly.

"Wanna bet?" Thomas asked her.

"Yes," Alice smiled confidently, "I've seen it."

"What's the rules on hunting humans?" Thomas chose to ignore the little vampire, facing the blond Doctor instead.

"Discretely and as far away as possible," Carlisle sighed sadly.

"Right. You coming Clara?" Thomas asked, heading for the door.

"Ye-" Clara went to follow him but Alice grabbed her before Daniel could.

"No, you're going to go hunting with me and the girls. Girls night out!" Alice laughed happily. Clara looked almost longingly at Thomas, "It'll be fun, I promise. I see a bear…"

"A bear?" that had Clara's attention, "Out here? A bear?"

"I didn't say here. The girls night out requires a little car journey first," she smiled, knowing that Clara would be coming with her.

"I take down a bear?" Clara asked slowly.

"Oh yes," Alice giggled.

"Then let's go!" Clara yelled in excitement causing the vegetarians to chuckle.

"Fine, whatever," Thomas shrugged, feeling horribly left out. But it was his own fault for being stubborn so he turned, grabbed the car keys and left the house, going to the rental car. Soon he was driving down the unfamiliar roads, twenty miles faster than the speed limit and not wearing his seatbelt, following the signs for Seattle.

Back in the house the girls were getting ready to go out, changing into appropriate 'bear hunting' clothes while the adults sat and talked,

"I'm sorry Thomas isn't more open to the idea of your diet," Cossette said apologetically, "But I'm sure he will open up once he gets used to being out here."

"You're planning to stay then?" Esme asked eagerly.

"If you'll have us," Daniel said, mostly to Carlisle.

"You can stay with us as long as you like," Carlisle said welcomingly, "If you go by our rules and that doesn't necessarily mean our diet although obviously I would prefer it if you did, we'll gladly welcome you into our family."

"We will gladly obey you're rules," Cossette said warmly.

"Then welcome to the family," Carlisle held out his hand and Daniel clasped it firmly. Cossette and Esme hugged emotionally, the motherly vampires having bonded even closer on their earlier hunt.

"What's going on?" Clara asked as the girls returned from changing upstairs in Alice and Jaspers room, all of them dressed in comfortable trousers and t-shirts. But of course Clara still had her bow in her hair.

"We've been accepted into the family," Cossette said happily.

"Really?" Ilsa asked. Cossette nodded. "So we're staying?"

"Yes," Daniel nodded.

"I knew you would!" Alice cried happily, "Let's go or the bear will be gone. Oh and Carlisle, we'll need to register Ilsa at Forks High."

"Come again?"

~ * ~ * ~

"Wow! Look at her!"

"New student…"

"Look at her clothes…"

"She's so skinny…"

"Probably anorexic…"

Ilsa tried to ignore the whispers she could hear clearly as she walked through the unfamiliar halls of Forks High, searching for her first room. She was quickly beginning to regret letting Alice choose her outfit, it was drawing far too much attention! Why couldn't Alice have chosen something that blended in a little more?

"I love her style…"

"Look at that skirt…"

"I want her shoes…"

The girl could have her shoes; she could barely walk in the fashionable heels. Fashionable on the catwalk maybe but not practical for a high school hallway with slippery floors. Now that she thought about it the rest of her outfit was probably…no it was definitely more appropriate for a catwalk too. The main part of her outfit was a twenties style dress, deep green in colour and with hundreds and hundreds of tassels shaking and dancing as she moved. It was also a mini-dress so her thin legs were almost fully on display with only navy tights to hide the paleness of her legs. Over the top of the dress she wore a baggy knitted cardigan of the same navy blue as her tights. The sleeves of the cardigan only came down to her elbows and so to hide her frail arms and her tattoo Alice had found a pair of black arm warmers that she wouldn't have to take off even when she was writing. Her hair, or rather her wig, was loose and the long waves fell down to her mid-back.

"She is hot…"

"Yeah…"

"She's got no tit's though…"

"Hello."

It took her a moment to realise that the last voice had been speaking to her instead of about her…

"Oh!" Her head snapped up, wide gold eyes meeting kind blue ones and if she could have she would have been blushing, "Hello."

"You look lost," said the handsome boy who she found herself facing.

"That's because I am lost," she answered quietly.

"Where do you need to be?" he asked her kindly, nodding to her timetable.

"Oh My God, Max is talking to the new girl!"

"English in room 105," Ilsa read from the piece of paper, ignoring the stunned voice that had come from their right, the voice of a girl at the centre of a group of girls, all dressed in tight jeans, tight tops and with their hair in too perfect waves.

"Well isn't that a stroke of luck! That's my first class too, you can walk there with me," Max smiled down at her and Ilsa noticed idly that he was a full head and shoulders taller than her, without looking up she'd be staring at the top button of his light blue shirt. And that was with her wearing heels!

"Are you sure?" Ilsa asked nervously.

"Of course. First days are scary enough as it is. Without a helping hand? Impossible to survive," Max laughed and she found herself smiling too, "I'm Max." He held out his hand and she put her little hand into his huge one, letting him shake it gently, so gently she was sure he was afraid to hurt her. If only he knew…

"Ilsa," she murmured.

"Well Ilsa, I bet no one has welcomed you to Forks High yet so…" he stepped back and spread his arms wide, "Welcome to Forks High!" He said this so loud that everyone who hadn't already been looking turned to look. Ilsa ducked her head in embarrassment but there was a smile on her lips.

"Oh he is so nice…"

"And handsome…"

"And funny…"

"Come on Ilsa," he stepped up to her and took her elbow, leading her down the busy corridor, moving her around the groups of teenagers, all hanging around in their various cliques.

"I wish he'd lead me like that…"

"I'd follow him anywhere…"

"Why do you think he was off school last year?"

"Think it has to do with the hat?"

Ilsa looked up and noticed the hat on his head for the first time, one of those 'beanies' that were so popular at the moment. It hid all of his hair and even covered most of his eyebrows. Most of the other boys wearing them had hair poking out of them but not Max. And looking closely at his skin she realised something, something only her un-human eyesight could see. He was ill, his skin looked…ill.

"So tell me about yourself Ilsa," Max ordered cheerfully.

"What do you want to know?" Ilsa asked.

"Everything. Anything," Max laughed, "Start with your surname."

"Freeman. Yours?" Ilsa turned the question round.

"Hollander," Max answered her cheerfully, "So how old are you?"

"I'm sixteen." There had been a quick debate when registering her for High School about whether she should start younger than her real age so she could stay in High School longer but Alice had told them that she would start at sixteen as staying too long wouldn't be a problem. She didn't explain further than that.

"I'll be seventeen in exactly nine days time," he told her cheerfully, "And I'm having a party but I haven't invited anyone yet. Fancy coming?"

"But you hardly know me," Ilsa pointed out.

"And? I like you already and I plan on getting to know you with time," Max really didn't beat around the bush and that left Ilsa blinking without a clue of what to say. "So? Party? Yay or nay?"

"Maybe."

"Better than a no," Max smiled happily, "And here we are, English 105." He gestured dramatically to the open classroom door. "Ladies first."

"T-Thanks," she really wished he'd wanted to go first because as soon as she stepped in all eyes were on her, looking at her even more closely than the kids in the hall had, trying to see her flaws and weaknesses. "H-Hi…"

A/N Sorry it's so short but I've had a massive case of writer's block, probably because of my other Twilight story - 'Of Lions And Lambs'. So this time when I say suggestions are welcome I really mean it! LOL.


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